This Is Getting Ridiculous
by firewaterspaceairearth
Summary: "So, the mountain caved in on him, and then he fell off a trapeze?" Wally shrugged. "Pretty much," he replied, switching the phone to his other hand. "In that order?" Roy checked incredulously. Wally nodded, despite the fact that Roy couldn't see him. "Keep in mind it's Robin."
1. It All Comes Crashing Down

_If you recognise it, it's not mine._

* * *

><p>The sound of glass shattering rang through the room.<p>

Conner and Kaldur whipped round from the video game they were playing. Robin glanced over, smirked and went back to attempting to explain the rules of solitaire to M'gann, who had quickly levitated the glass shards from the floor and into a bin.

Artemis rolled her eyes. "So that would be the answer to the question, 'Why don't we have many glass doors?" she sighed, glaring at the teenager.

"Sorry!" Wally skidded to a halt and looked behind him, smirking at Artemis. "You have to admit, I do know how to make an entrance."

"And how to destroy one too," Robin quipped. "You should try _stroying_ stuff sometime, Kid Crash."

Wally rolled his eyes at his friend, flopping down on the couch opposite Artemis and picking up a nearby newspaper.

"So that card could go there?" M'gann asked, pointing hopefully.

"No, these piles go by suit, the columns are in the red-black pattern," Robin corrected.

"This game is so confusing!" M'gann wailed, accidentally levitating the cards into the air. Robin shuffled them together quickly, shrugging.

"I guess that's why it's a one player game- not a lot of people get the rules," he smiled, patting her on the shoulder. Jumping down from the top of the cupboard- and why he'd been playing up there in the first place, M'gann had no idea- he landed smoothly in an armchair. M'gann floated down after him, glancing at the crossword puzzle Wally was poring over. "You do crosswords?" she asked in surprise.

Wally shook his head with a laugh. "Nah, Robin tells me all the answers and I fill them in. Hey, Boy Wonder, three down, a wolfish flower?"

Robin straightened up, thinking for a few seconds. "Uh...Dog Rose?"

"Too long. Five letters. Blank, blank, blank, blank, blank, blank."

"That was six blanks," Artemis pointed out without looking up from her book.

"Was not."

"Was too."

"Lupin," Robin said, cutting off the rising argument.

"What?"

"The answer is Lupin. A wolfish flower. Lupin comes from the Latin root for wolf," he elaborated, in a tone which showed that he'd known the answer all along. Wally wrote it in quickly, then turned to the next question. The group quieted again, and M'gann glanced around the room. Artemis was curled up with a book called _'Pride and Prejudice'_. Judging by her bored expression and extraordinarily slow progress, it was something for school.

Kaldur and Conner were playing a game which involved a lot of brightly coloured pathways and various cartoon characters in strange little cars. M'gann was slightly surprised to see the usually bookish Atlantean playing a video game, and neither teenager looked like they fully understood the game, but they seemed to be enjoying themselves, so she didn't question it.

Robin had literally wandered along the back of the sofa to stand behind Wally, and was currently balancing upside-down on his hands to read the crossword clues. His sunglasses remained firmly in place.

"Okay, eight across, Beirut is the capital of-"

He was cut off by cries of surprise from Kaldur and Conner. The video game had suddenly switched off. A split second later, the lights went out. Wally squealed in shock, although he promptly insisted that he didn't.

Robin flipped the right way up, rummaged in his belt and pulled out a small torch. A bright light illuminated the room. "Power cut," he said, tossing more torches to Artemis and Kaldur. The room seemed much brighter, and the team grouped together in the centre.

Then Robin's torch flickered.

Slowly, all three lights faded away.

"This is no power cut," Kaldur muttered.

"Something's draining the power!" M'gann gasped.

A beam of light suddenly appeared beyond the broken door. A figure, tall and bulky, stood silhouetted in the glow. "Justice League, stand and face me!"

The young heroes felt the familiar twitches of the mind link activating.

_"Think we should tell him they aren't in and he'll go away? Like a sales call?"_ Wally suggested. Silently, Artemis kicked him in the shin. _"Ow!"_

_"We should investigate,"_ Kaldur thought. The team followed him down the hall to the stranger. As they approached, Wally, Kaldur, Conner and M'gann felt a strange draining sensation, as if the intruder was pulling their strength towards him.

"Justice League, you will fight me! And then I will take your powers, and the world will be mine for domination!" The voice was not one they recognised, and the team exchanged wary glances. An unknown villain could men anything.

_"Who the hell is that?"_ Robin asked over the wavering mind link.

"Who the hell are you?" Wally asked aloud. The stranger whirled round, and the teenagers saw that the light was coming from the palm of his hand. His other hand was held out as if he was waiting for something to be placed in it.

"You're not the Justice League," he said, sounding disappointed.

"Nope, sorry, they aren't in today. Want us to take a message?" Wally said, stepping forward. The stranger laughed, reaching out and gripping Wally's shoulder. The teenager sank to his knees, face paling. Kaldur sent a jet of water at the pair, breaking the attacker's concentration. Pulling his friend away before he regained his focus, he sent another message through the mind link.

_"M'gann, is the link still open?"_

_"Yes, but I can't support it much longer. I think he's draining our powers."_

_"Don't let him do that,"_ Wally added. The speedster was leaning against the wall, breathing heavily. Some colour had returned to his face, but it was obvious that he wasn't going to be of any use in the approaching fight.

_"Attack plan Omicron?"_ Artemis suggested. The others nodded.

_"I hate attack plan Omicron,"_ Robin thought, before stepping forward to face the stranger.

"Uh, hey, I'm Robin," he said, looking smaller than usual next to the huge intruder. Up close, he could see the man's face. A black helmet covered most of his head, and navy clothes similar to a security guard's outfit twitched in a hidden breeze. "So, what's your name?" He neatly dodged the huge hand which was about to land on his shoulder, and nodded to the rest of the team. They began trying to sneak around behind them.

"I am Orbital! I drain the powers of those around me."

"Really? That must be...uh, fun," Robin said, ducking again. Behind Orbital, Kaldur beckoned to Conner, gesturing to the villain's head and holding up five fingers.

"I take their powers through my mind.." A few feet behind Robin, M'gann gasped, stumbling as the mind link flickered out. Robin casually stepped away from her, drawing Orbital's gaze away as Artemis pulled her out of sight. Kaldur flicked down one finger. "I take their strength by touch..." He reached out for Robin again, but the acrobat fell away, rolling into a fluid stance. Kaldur held up three fingers. Orbital still hadn't noticed anything, busy describing his power to Robin. "I can drain the strength of the walls themselves!" he shouted. Robin backflipped away, as Kaldur folded his remaining fingers one by one.

"That's nice," he said, at the same time throwing himself forward in a flip. His foot connected with Orbital's exposed face at the same time as Conner slammed his fists into the sides of his helmet. Orbital blinked dazedly for a few seconds before he was knocked off his feet by a small tsunami, helmet clattering to rest at Wally's feet.

"You _cannot_ defeat me! I am Orbit-" He struggled to lift his head for a second, then an arrow smacked off his forehead. He flopped down, and stayed down.

"Amateur," Artemis sighed.

"You didn't kill him?" Kaldur checked, putting bindings around the unconscious villain's ankles.

"Blunted arrow. Hurts, but doesn't kill. He'll have a headache when he wakes up," the archer said, smirking slightly.

Kaldur glanced over at Wally, who was being helped upright by Robin, and M'gann, who had both hands pressed against her temples and was trembling. "Good work, team," he said. "I think we can relax now. I doubt that there will be two villains in one day, and he's not going anywhere soon."

"To the video games!" Wally cheered, shrugging off Robin's hand, evidently fully recovered. He paused to grab the fallen helmet. "Souvenir!" The others began to follow, but Robin hesitated. Something didn't seem right. He could feel a pattering of dust on the back of his neck. Robin looked up, then reached out to touch the roof. A thin crack was inching across the stone. He had never seen any kind of damage to Mount Justice, save that which Conner or the other teenagers (but mostly Conner) were responsible for.

_"I can drain the strength of the walls themselves!"_

Robin looked down. Orbital's fist was still glowing, enough for him to see the limp hand splayed against the stone wall.

_"It was hollowed out and reinforced by Superman and Green Lantern in the early days of the League."_

Robin stood up, glancing at the crack again. It had grown, stretching across more than half of the tunnel. More dust pattered down. Robin kicked Orbital's hand away, breaking the connection, and ran down the corridor, calling out to the others as he went. "The ceiling! He's still draining the stones, it's going to collapse!"

_"What?"_ Wally skidded to a halt beside him. Robin explained quickly, gesturing to the ceiling above them. A second crack, longer and wider than the first, was almost directly above their heads. Wally swore softly, and then sped back down the corridor, presumably to let the others know. Feeling several small pebbles tumbling onto his head, Robin began to run after him.

But then the ground shook.

A mild tremor, not uncommon, but at the worst time possible. Before Robin could do more than stumble backwards, away from another crack, he was knocked to the ground by crashing boulders. His training kicked in instinctively, tucking himself into a ball, rolling. His hoodie and jeans didn't protect him as well as his Robin costume would've, and he could tell he'd have some spectacular bruises in the morning. Robin scrabbled to the wall, pressing himself to the stone, when suddenly there was a blunt impact at the back of his head, then a sharp pain.

He squeezed his eyes shut and waited for it to stop.

* * *

><p>When the rocks started falling, Kaldur's first thought was a somewhat colourful Atlantean curse. Artemis muttered the rough English equivalent, while M'gann simply screamed until a tumbling piece of ceiling collided with the side of her skull. Conner, with a surprising presence of mind, caught her as she fell and shoved them all backwards, back to the games room with the destroyed glass door. The damaged structure seemed to stop there, and Conner laid M'gann down on one of the couches. A lump was already rising on her temple, and a stream of blood was trickling from a graze above it. Artemis grabbed a box of tissues and a bottle of water from the desk, cleaning the wound. Kaldur looked around the room, checking that everybody else was okay. They were all dusty and shaken, and had a couple of small cuts or bruises, but were generally fine.<p>

"Wait," Wally said, also glancing round the room. "Where's Robin? He was right behind..." Voice trailing off, he crossed to the entrance to the corridor. His heart twisted urgently as he saw the blockage at the other end. "Right behind me." The whisper was left in the room as an echo as he sped down the broken hall, miraculously not tripping on any of the scattered stone.

Kaldur glanced at M'gann again, and nodded to Artemis, indicating that Conner should follow him. When they reached Wally, the speedster was hammering on the stone, gabbling his best friend's name in a blur. _"Robinrobinrobinrobinrobinrobin!"_

"Kid Flash," Kaldur tried. The red-haired teen ignored him, instead attempting to climb the rocks. Conner reached out and set him back on the ground.

"Wally, we need to keep the rocks stable in case they collapse on us or Robin. Understand?" Kaldur said firmly, wincing at the fresh scrapes on the boy's knuckles as he sat on a boulder.

"But Robin..."

"Will not be helped by being crushed."

There was a heavy silence, and then, "K-Kaldur?"

"Robin!" Wally shouted, jumping to his feet.

"KF, i-it's dark." The voice was quiet and wavering. That set alarm bells ringing in Wally's head. Robin never stuttered.

"Yeah, the lights haven't come on again yet. Are you hurt?"

"I...I don't know." There was silence for a few seconds, then it was broken by a sudden whimper, and then another. "T-there's r-rocks on my l-legs." Robin's breath hitched, and Wally knew this was really bad. "I _c-can't..."_ He trailed off, and Wally realised several things.

Robin was trapped. They couldn't move the rocks by hand, in case more fell, and M'gann was unconscious, she couldn't move them.

Robin was scared. Not of the dark, Wally was pretty sure the Boy Wonder thrived on shadows to hide in. But he was definitely scared of something, and it was showing. Robin never showed fear, or pain if he could help it.

The last one hit him like a punch in the gut.

Robin was thirteen years old.

Sure, he was a genius and a ninja and all that, and Wally could count on one hand the instances when Robin had actually acted his age, rather than their ages or older, but right now he was thirteen and trapped and hurt and frightened.

Kaldur and Conner were standing looking somewhat awkward, and Wally realised they had no idea how to act around Robin, not when he was like this. So he took charge.

"Kaldur, you need to try and make contact with the Justice League, tell them what happened. Conner, I guess you should go round, see if there's another way to get to him."

The two boys nodded numbly, not questioning his staying, and jogged away, back down the corridor.

"Are they g-gone?" Robin muttered, voice fainter than ever.

"Yeah, they're going to get help."

"S-stay?"

Wally's throat suddenly seemed to have a lump in it. "I'm staying, Robin," he promised.

The smaller boy gave a huff of relief. "T-they're getting h-help," he mumbled drowsily. "Stay... stay t-traught."

His voice trembled, and Wally was suddenly gripped by a wave of fear. _Get traught...or get dead._ "Don't go to sleep."

"Y-you talk." Robin couldn't keep the pain out of his voice no matter how hard he tried. If it was as bad as Wally thought, if it was him under there he would be screaming, or unconscious, or something, and Robin had barely cried. _"T-talk,_ KF. N-not usually a p-problem f-for..." Robin broke off into a coughing fit, and Wally began to talk.

He kept talking, at a relatively normal pace, pausing to hear a stumbling comment from behind the rocks.

He talked about anything he could think of, about video games and past missions and telling jokes. Halfway through, the lights flickered back on, but apparently it was still dark for Robin, trapped in the blockage.

Conner turned up after about ten minutes, saying that the hall was completely blocked. He'd caught Orbital trying to escape and had ended up kicking him to the training room and tying him up with the gymnastics equipment. Wally raised an eyebrow at that, but didn't question the clone's logic. Conner asked if there was anything he could do. Wally told him to go help look after M'gann, seeing that was all the big guy really wanted to do. And then he went back to talking to Robin, about how much school sucked, especially French, and why did he take that language anyway, he should have stuck with Spanish because that teacher doesn't notice when you fall asleep. Every few minutes he would stop and run a few questions past Robin, checking he was still conscious.

"Still awake, Robin?"

"Yeah."

"What's the capital of...uh, Beirut?"

"Beirut_ is_ a c-capital city. L-lebanon."

"Okay, then. Seventy-eight times ninety-four?"

Silence.

"Robin? Robin!" Wally's heart leapt into his throat, and he jumped to his feet, pressing his ear to the rocks. _"Robin!"_

Coughing. Weak, painful coughing.

"Robin, are you okay? Robin?"

"W-wally..." At the sound of his semi-secret identity, Wally stiffened. Usually, Robin kept to the annoying nicknames in the mountain. "W-wally, I...I t-think I'm c-coughing up b-blood."

Wally's blood ran cold. He knew that coughing up blood was a bad sign, and Robin was stammering worse than ever. "Rob, just hang on, okay?"

He heard more coughing, and then Robin's tiny, wavering voice piped up again. "S-seven thousand, t-three hundred and...and..." He faded out for a moment, then seemed to pull himself together. "T-thirty-two."

Wally almost laughed. His best friend was trapped and badly hurt, and doing maths in his head.

Kaldur jogged up behind him, Artemis in tow. "How is Robin?"

"It's not good," Wally said dully. Then he thought for a second. "Actually, it's really really bad. He's coughing up blood. Listen." Kaldur moved to the rocks, where he could hear Robin. Wally sighed and sat down on the floor, resting his head in his hands. Artemis placed a reassuring hand on Wally's shoulder. "It can't be that bad, right? He isn't screaming or anything." Wally turned his face away, because she didn't know Robin as well as he did, didn't know that each tiny whimper hinted at agony, at terror.

"Have you managed to contact the League?" he checked, knowing that it was more important than ever that they came and got Robin out.

"I have contacted Aquaman. He says that he will alert the League and they will arrive in an hour, three quarters of an hour minimum," Kaldur replied.

Wally nodded. "How's Miss M?" he asked, glancing down the corridor.

"She's awake," Artemis said. "I think Superboy's explaining-"

She was cut off by a familiar shriek of "Hello, Megan!" The Martian flew down the corridor towards them, Conner following. "Why didn't you guys wake me up earlier? I can lift the rocks off him, right?"

She landed in front of the stone, ready to concentrate, but Kaldur stopped her. "Miss Martian, Robin is badly injured. If we move the rocks too much, they could collapse on him, and I doubt you are in a condition to lift them all at once." He gestured to the bandage wrapped around her head. M'gann's face fell, and Artemis wrapped an arm around her shoulder. The group huddled together, probably formulating some sort of plan.

Wally ignored them and crossed back to the wall. "Robin?" he called, worried at the sudden silence.

"H-hi, KF." He must have heard the others talking, dropping the use of his real name. Not that it really mattered, but still.

"How are you doing?" Wally asked.

"S-same."

Wally frowned as he heard yet more coughing. "Are you still...you know, coughing up blood?"

"I t-think s-so." Robin wasn't stupid. He knew how serious this was.

"Hey, Baywatch, get over here! We've got an idea!" Artemis called suddenly. Wally gestured for them to come over so Robin could hear them properly. "Look, what if Miss M only moves some of the rocks? That one there could be pulled out a bit, then Superboy could lift it. It seems pretty well supported, and we could prop it up with these." She pulled out a handful of reinforced arrows. Wally instinctively winced; one of those had punched through a steel wall inches from his head once.

"One of us could crawl through to Robin," Conner added.

"I'm doing it," Wally said firmly. Robin was his best friend, and his little brother. Nothing would stop him helping him as much as possible.

M'gann stepped in front of the rock and reached out to it, eyes glowing. Slowly, the boulder inched out. As soon as there was space, Kaldur slotted in an arrow. M'gann's hands were trembling, and a thin line of blood was showing through her bandage.

"Enough," Kaldur said, guiding her to the wall. She slumped to the ground, a single tear running down her face. Conner pulled the stone away easily, stirring up a cloud of dust. When it settled, there was a hole in the blockage which looked just big enough for someone to crawl through. Wally moved forward.

"Wait!" Artemis shoved two of the torches from earlier, a large bottle of water, and a first aid kit into his hands. "Take these."

"How did you think of all that?" Wally asked gratefully. He hadn't even noticed her go to fetch them.

Artemis smiled. "Go look after him, Baywatch." This time, there was less malice in the nickname. Wally nodded, and ducked into the gap without another word.

It was a tight fit. Robin could have slipped through it easily, but it was several undignified seconds before Wally scrambled through the hole, turned round and hit his head off the wall. This place was small, only about a metre wide, if that. And it was dusty. Wally took one breath and spluttered.

"Robin?" he called, grabbing one of the torches and flicking it on. The light illuminated the space in stark shadows. Wally wedged the torch into the ceiling and switched on the other one. A weak groan came from behind him, and Wally turned round, hitting his head again.

Then he swore, scrabbling to the end of the cave.

Because Robin looked just as bad as he feared he would.

"Kid Flash, can you see him?" Kaldur's voice drifted through from the other side.

"Yeah, I'm right beside him," Wally replied, reaching for the first aid kit.

"Can you give us a status report?"

"Just give me a minute, okay?" Wally took a deep breath, choked on a mouthful of dust, and tried to figure out which bit of Robin to tend to first.

The younger boy had several scarily large rocks on his legs, and Wally could tell that one of his feet was definitely not supposed to point that way. There was a trail of blood running down his neck, probably from a wound at the back of his head. Robin's face was almost pale grey, starkly contrasting with the red blood dribbling from the corner of his mouth. Wally relayed all this to the team, mentioning the dust and breathing difficulties. Then he saw a gleam of blue in the grey face. Robin's sunglasses were cracked in half, lying squint on his face, and one lens had completely shattered. His eyes were open, blinking at Wally with a mixture of confusion and fear and pain.

Wally couldn't remember the last time he'd seen Robin's- no, Dick's- eyes. A while ago.

"Hey, Robin," he whispered. Robin coughed weakly, more blood trickling from his mouth. Wally tugged the first aid kit open, wiping the blood away with a cloth. "Do you want some water?" he asked, offering the bottle. Robin nodded, wincing, so Wally tipped the bottle to his friend's lips, making him swallow a couple of painkillers with it. "I'm gonna need to fix your head up, Rob," he murmured, and for the next few minutes, Robin's breathing was ragged as Wally cleaned and bandaged the gash at the back of his skull.

"W-what h-happened to M-miss...Miss M?" Robin croaked after a while.

"Orbital took her powers, and then she got knocked out by a lump of stone. Took a lot out of her. She'll be fine though."

"Is a-anyone else h-hurt?"

"Nope. Few cuts and bruises, but we're all good." Wally plastered a fake smile on his face to cover his ever-growing worry about his friend. "Hey, should I try and move these stones off you?"

"I...I g-guess you c-could t-try," Robin breathed. Wally reached for one of the smaller rocks on the boy's legs, and began to tug it away. Before he'd even really moved it, Robin's shaking hand gripped his arm, eyes squeezed shut in agony, a low moan escaping his gritted teeth. Wally stopped immediately, internally panicking.

"Robin, I'm sorry, I've stopped, dude, breathe!"

Robin groaned faintly. "D-don't m-move the s-stones..."

"I won't," Wally said, reaching out to smooth Robin's hair away from his eyes. The pale skin was clammy to the touch, and Robin was shivering. Wally tugged off his own hoodie and wrapped it around the smaller boy, and started talking again.

He kept talking, occasionally raising his voice when Robin showed signs of dozing off. He didn't even know if he was making sense, just that he needed to talk, and to keep Robin awake. Somehow, he manoeuvred himself so that he was leaning against the wall with Robin's head in his lap, and he kept talking. Sometimes the team would ask how they were doing, and he'd tell them, but mostly he talked to Robin.

And finally, finally, the Justice League arrived. By that time his voice was barely a hoarse thread, choked by dust and worry. He heard Black Canary asking Kaldur and the others what happened, and them explaining, and then Martian Manhunter and Superman were lifting up the rocks. Robin was whimpering, lips clamped shut, almost screaming but not quite, and Wally felt a painfully tight grip on his wrist as the stones were lifted off the younger boy's body.

And then Batman was there, a whirl of dark cape, bending over Robin and murmuring something Wally didn't hear properly.

They took Robin away to the medical bay, looking so small and fragile in his mentor's arms.

_Of course he looked small. _

_He was only thirteen._

Wally was left sitting in the rubble with blood and dust smeared on his hands, until two people crouched next to him, taking his elbows and leading him away.

"C'mon, this way. Let's get you cleaned up." Flash, still in uniform, bright red on his right.

"You did okay, Kid Stuck-in-a-hole." Artemis? Yes. He can feel the strap of her quiver digging into his shoulder, feel the end of her ponytail brushing against his arm.

They took him to his room and then Flash left, saying he'll check on the others, but he'll be back in a minute.

"Artemis?" She sat down on the edge of his bed, head down. Wally washed his hands, getting as much of Robin's blood off as he could before sitting next to her, still wondering why she, of all people, is the one who stayed with him. They didn't say anything for a couple of minutes, until they stood up at the same time, Artemis to pace, Wally to get a hoodie because he gave his to Robin. Their fingers knocked together, and they instinctively gripped each other. It lasted a split second, and then Artemis dropped his hand as if it had burnt her, cheeks flushing pink.

"I was just-"

"The others will be wondering where we are."

"We should join them."

"They're probably watching TV or something."

"Or something."

"I'm just going to-"

"Yeah."

"Yeah."

The others were in the room with the destroyed glass door again. Kaldur was still wearing his water bearers. Conner's fingers were digging into the armrest and leaving dents. M'gann looked better at least- not so pale, not so shaky. Flash was talking to them, Black Canary at his side.

"-I think the Green Lanterns are dealing with him now. Why the trapezes, Superboy?"

Conner shrugged. "If he drained strength from the walls, I figured he shouldn't touch the walls."

"That makes sense," Canary said, nodding. "Artemis, Kid Flash, why don't you come sit down," she added, gesturing to the couch.

"You all worked as a team admirably today," Flash said. "You were efficient in dealing with the intruder, and when you were put in a crisis situation you kept level heads."

"If anybody wants to talk, they can come and speak with me just now," Canary offered.

"Can we just...leave it," Artemis said, standing up. She began pacing, footsteps loud in the quiet room. Her hands were twitching angrily at her side, clenching and stretching at random.

"Artemis-"

"Leave me _alone!"_ She stormed out, reaching to slam the door before realising that it was smashed, settling for kicking over the bin next to it. Flash zipped over and caught it before it fell. They could hear her angry footsteps all the way down the hall.

"She's not happy," Wally guessed.

The two mentors exchanged glances. "I think you should try and occupy yourselves. We'll let you know as soon as there's any news about Robin." With that, they left. Conner reached out for the TV remote and switched it on. Static filled the screen.

"Video game?" Kaldur suggested.

"I thought you didn't like video games?" Wally asked.

"I don't, generally, but this game requires a level of concentration sufficient to take our minds off things."

"Okay, what were you playing?" Wally vaulted onto the couch, landing in between the two boys.

"A game called 'Mario Kart'," Conner said, gesturing to the controllers.

Wally grinned. "Cool! Dibs on being Luigi."

"I must admit we didn't fully understand certain aspects of the game," Kaldur said sheepishly.

"That's okay, I'll explain," Wally said. "Hey, Miss M, want to join us?"

"That's okay," M'gann replied. "I think I'll just go...bake or something. To calm down."

"Okay, then. See you later. Come talk to us if you want to, okay? Now, the point of the game is that you race each other, in these cool little car thingies..."

They played video games, and tried to drown out the nagging worry in the back of their heads.

* * *

><p>M'gann made a cake and two trays of cookies before she tried concentrating, tried to focus on the minds around her. And slowly, she picked out a certain thought pattern. Robin had once called it her own kind of hacking. He seemed to be the only member of the team who didn't completely protest against the ability.<p>

The thought pattern was painful. It was like a kind of river, except in layers. On the surface, there was a mess of agony and fear and don't show it, keep it hidden.

Then there was the awareness, fuzzy guesses of people, nearby or not. Names blurred into each other, a confusing mix of identities and aliases, merging together.

_BatmanWallyMeganAqualadArtemisConner..._

And then, deeper, where everything was dark, there was a sudden stop, as if there was a brick wall in the way. Only one small sensation drifted through the cracks.

_falling..._

M'gann pulled herself out as fast as she could, leaning against the counter to steady herself. Uncle J'onn had told her never to go deep into minds, past any walls, unless she had to. Tentatively, M'gann searched for Robin's mind again, but found nothing, just a trace of pain and then sleep. He was unconscious. That was probably good. There were other minds though. Some were filled with bright colours and music, masking a layer of worry. Probably the boys with their video game. The adult's minds were darker, with nothing to distract them, and M'gann skirted around what was essentially the black hole of Batman's mind.

Then she found someone who was sending out mental lightning bolts of pure anger.

Artemis.

M'gann put the last tray in the oven and levitated the dishes into the sink. Following the hallways to Artemis's room, she paused outside the door. "Artemis?" she called softly, knocking.

A few seconds of silence. "Go away! I don't want any stupid therapy!"

"Artemis, it's me. M'gann."

More silence, and then the door opened. Artemis's eyes locked on M'gann's for a split second, and then she dropped her gaze, gesturing for the Martian to enter.

Artemis had trashed her room. Anything which could be picked up and thrown at a wall had been. Clothes, books, and bedsheets were strewn across the floor. As the door shut behind her, M'gann saw several arrows embedded in the wood.

"I kinda freaked out," Artemis admitted quietly, staring at the floor. M'gann didn't say anything, instead levitating a desk chair upright and clearing a path across the room to nudge it against the other girl's knees. Artemis jumped, then sat down.

"Everybody is worried," M'gann said, sitting on the bed.

Artemis glared at the floor. "It's just... It was always going to be Robin, wasn't it?" she burst out suddenly. "Superboy is like, made of iron-"

"Steel," M'gann corrected softly.

"Right. I've seen Aqualad get smashed into walls, leave a dent and get up before anyone else, plus he's got all that electric water stuff. You've got loads of Martian powers, and Kid Cocky has his super speed." Artemis stopped and took a deep breath. She had been speeding up throughout the rant, and her hands were twitching in her lap.

"You're human," M'gann pointed out.

Artemis raised her hands halfheartedly. "But a bow is a ranged weapon. I don't have to be right in the middle of the fight. I could take the bad guy down from across the room. And Robin is always right there, and I know he's good at what he does- hell, he's easily good enough to be in the League."

"Why isn't he, then?" M'gann asked, subtly beginning to clear up some of the stuff scattered on the floor.

"Because he's _thirteen!"_ Artemis snapped. "He's tiny, seriously, the only person that age I know who's smaller than him is this kid at my school, Grayson. But when it comes to injuries, and big ones, it was always going to be Robin, wasn't it?"

She stopped suddenly, realising she had been shouting. Then she sniffed the air. "Is something burning?"

M'gann clapped a hand to her forehead, wincing as the familiar movement hit her bandage. Her Martian healing meant that it would be fine in a day or two, but until then she needed to be careful. "My cookies!" Artemis followed her as she flew back to the kitchen, arriving to see her staring at two trays of perfectly baked cookies, and Kid Flash lifting the last one out of the oven.

"Kid?" He jumped, dropping the tray. M'gann levitated it onto the table before it could hit the ground. Wally promptly started babbling.

"Sorry! I just thought it would be nice if your cookies worked out for once, because even burnt they taste amazing so I thought I should take them out before-"

"You know how long cookies take?" M'gann asked in surprise. Wally shrugged. "That's really sweet of you, Wally. Thanks for taking them out for me."

"Wait, if the cookies are fine, what's the burning smell?" Artemis asked, wrinkling her nose.

M'gann gasped. "Hello, Megan! I made a cake, too!" Diving for the oven, she pulled out a long, flat tin full of a charred mess. She stared at it miserably. "It was a special Martian recipe too."

"Uh...Is that _blue?"_ Wally asked, scraping at the top layer of charcoal.

M'gann nodded sadly. "Yes. When you first put the mixture into the tin, it's bright red. As it cooks, it turns orange and yellow, and when it's ready, it turns green. If it gets burnt, it goes blue. The first time I tried it, it went bright purple. It's a very precise recipe."

"Woah..." Wally muttered. "Like... titration, or pH paper?" Everyone stared at him, and he realised that while Wally West was a science geek, Kid Flash was not seen as such. "I've got a test after the holidays," he improvised.

Artemis scoffed. "You revise, Kid Lazy?"

"Yeah! Of course I do!" he said, pretending to be offended. Of course, if he got bad marks, Flash would probably punish him by not letting him out on patrol...

A pair of giggling heroes, joined by a slightly smirking Kaldur and a stone-faced as ever Conner, who had come to see why the speedster wasn't back yet, alerted Wally to the somewhat embarrassing fact that he may have said that out loud.

Oh well.

At least they smiled.

By the time Flash came back, the burns on Wally's hands had healed (and no, he didn't know that you were supposed to wear oven gloves, and besides, he heals really fast anyway and nobody noticed).

"Is he okay?"

"Can we see him?"

"What happened?"

"Is Robin okay? Is Batman going to kill us?"

At that last comment, Flash had stepped aside to reveal the Dark Knight himself. Wally cringed, but Batman seemed to ignore him, speaking to the group as a whole.

"He's stable, and sleeping now. He won't wake up until tomorrow morning at the earliest. You can see him now, but only two at a time."

And then he was gone.

"Wally, you should go first. Who wants to go with him?"

And for some reason, Wally shook his head. "No. Artemis, M'gann, do you want to go first?"

Artemis came out and locked herself in her room again. M'gann followed her, paused outside her door, and they had a brief telepathic conversation. After a while, M'gann came and curled up on the couch.

"Is she okay?" Wally asked once Conner and Kaldur had left. M'gann nodded mutely. "Are you okay?" She hesitated for several seconds before answering.

"I will be."

By the time Kaldur and Conner came back, it was nearly ten at night, and although they hadn't been long, Wally had planned just about every worst case scenario he could have thought of. So when he walked into the room to see his best friend looking somewhat battered, but still recognisable as Robin, he was relieved.

Robin looked way better than he had earlier. He had some sort of eye mask on, fresh bandages at the back of his head, and the blood on his face had been cleaned up. He was still pale, but not grey anymore. Wally could see a lump in the blanket where it seemed his legs were covered in thick casts. Several needles were stuck in his arm, attached to one of those monitor machines, an IV, and what looked like a blood transfusion.

Wally reached for the medical chart at the end of the bed, which he suspected had been left there for his benefit. Robin's legs were broken or fractured in five places altogether, including a broken ankle. He had a concussion, but the cut on his head would heal fine. Wally sighed in relief when he understood that his friend would make a full recovery, putting the chart back with a smile. "Okay, so I'm guessing that means no acrobatics for a while then, Rob?" he said, shaking his head at himself for teasing his unconscious friend. He had never seen Robin so still. Even when he was concentrating, his foot would always be tapping or his fingers would patter across the nearest surface as if he was playing an imaginary piano. Wally sat down in the chair beside the bed, humming a song he'd heard on the radio to break the almost silence. It was peaceful, and it had been a long day. Wally slid down in the chair, finding it harder and harder to keep his eyes open.

"Just a few...minutes..."


	2. Catching Those Who Fall

_If you recognise it, it's not mine._

* * *

><p>When Robin opened his eyes and pulled off the stupid hospital mask, the first thing he saw was a white ceiling, and the first thing he heard was a loud snore. Turning his head to the side, he saw Wally slumped in the chair, red hair flopping over his eyes as his head tilted at an extremely uncomfortable looking angle. Another snore echoed through the room.<p>

"Hey, KF," Robin said in a sing-song tone, ignoring the scratching pain in his dry throat. "Rise and shine!" He reached out to poke the older boy, but the needles in his arm tugged painfully. "Okay, uh, pancakes! Waffles, toast..." Wally twitched and mumbled something intelligible. Robin grinned. "Kid Flash, cookies!"

Wally nearly fell out of the chair. "Wuh...where're the cookies?" he yawned. Then he blinked. "Robin! Dude, you're awake! Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I guess so. Did you spend the whole night here?"

"Meh. It was pretty late when they let me in. I couldn't be bothered leaving. Besides, what Batman doesn't know won't..." A cough came from the door, and Wally turned to see said Dark Knight, the Flash smirking beside him. "Uh, morning! I'm starving, how about you? I'll bring back some toast for you, Rob." He sped out to the door, tripped over Flash's foot, and slammed into the opposite wall.

"Kid Flash, stay. We have a task for you. Robin, put your glasses on," Batman said firmly, tossing a new pair of sunglasses at the bed. Robin rolled his eyes, but put the glasses on. Wally picked himself up and slunk back into the room, grumbling under his breath.

"Robin, how much of yesterday do you remember?" Batman asked.

"Most of it," Robin said immediately. "Orbital, rockfall, trapped, et cetera. Then Wally came and then you guys showed up. I think I passed out while you were setting my legs." Batman nodded, while Wally glanced at the lumps of cast which were Robin's legs. He was _conscious_ while they were doing that?

"Robin, you do realise that you'll be in a wheelchair until you heal," Flash said gently. Even behind the sunglasses, Wally could swear that Robin's glare rivalled Batman's, and that Batman was smirking.

"No way! I am _not_ staying in a wheelchair! Forget it!" Robin yelled. The effect was ruined by him breaking into a coughing fit at the end. Wally zipped to the kitchen, poured a glass of water, and grabbed a piece of toast as it popped out of the toaster, much to Conner's annoyance.

"Hey!"

"Can't stop, medical mission!" Wally yelled back, skidding to a halt back in Robin's room a second later. Passing the water to Batman, who nodded curtly, he took a bite out of the toast. Flash leaned over and tore half of it off.

"What? I haven't had breakfast either."

"Stop it," Batman said, taking the glass of water back from Robin.

"I'm not going in a wheelchair," Robin said stubbornly. "We had this conversation when I was like, eleven."

"Robin, I expect when you were eleven, you did not have serious breaks in both legs, a concussion, and severe bruising," Flash tried sternly.

"Oh, I remember that," Wally smirked. "You got temporarily paralysed by some weird gas thing, right?"

Ignoring Flash's squawk of _"What!"_, Batman nodded.

"You aren't going to use a wheelchair," he said. "Instead, you can use these, and have the wheelchair if it proves too difficult." He gestured to a pair of sturdy-looking crutches. Flash opened his mouth to protest, but a double Bat glare had him shutting it again.

"Robin will be staying at the mountain for the duration of his recovery, as he will be unable to come out on patrol in Gotham." He held up a hand and continued speaking without even looking at Robin, effectively cutting off his ward's protests. "Kid Flash, as it is currently school holidays and I believe that much of the team will be visiting frequently, could it be arranged that you also live at the mountain?"

Wally nodded, but Robin was less than happy. "I don't need a _babysitter_!"

"Kid Flash would not be your... babysitter. He would be there to keep you company and to ensure that if there are complications, we are notified. Immediately."

"Dude, it'll be just like a big sleepover! We get this whole place to ourselves!" Wally suggested. Robin still looked like a small, heavily bandaged storm cloud. "Wait, who's going to be supervising us?" the speedster added worriedly.

"It depends on who is available at the time," Flash said.

Robin glared at them all. "Are the others going to go on missions?" he asked sulkily. Batman nodded. "Great. So I have to stay here, on my own-"

"Hey, I'll be around!"

"-like some sort of _invalid_! I've had way worse than this, and you know it!"

Batman sighed. "Flash, go get some painkillers, and yes, you do need them, Robin. Kid, maybe find some breakfast for all of us?" When both speedsters had left, Batman leaned in closer to Robin, smiling slightly. "I'll arrange for Alfred to send cookies every other day."

Robin shrugged, still scowling, and reached for the crutches.

* * *

><p>Wally had to admit that for a skinny thirteen year old, Robin's upper body strength was incredible. He was essentially lifting his entire body, plus the weight of the two thick casts encasing his legs up to mid-thigh, and swinging himself around the place on the crutches. And he still managed to completely disappear occasionally, and it would take Wally ten minutes to find him lounging somewhere, eating those cookies which kept appearing.<p>

He did wonder why he'd been asked to look after Robin, considering the boy was probably capable by himself, and M'gann and Conner lived at the mountain anyway. However, after a couple of days, it sort of became clear. Conner was getting better at controlling his anger, but he sometimes couldn't stop himself from punching the wall or something. Knowing Robin, he would probably be so bored he'd say something to set him off without even meaning to. As for M'gann, she was just too nice, and would keep trying to help Robin when he didn't want it.

Wally knew that his friend was tired and still recovering though. On the first night, he found the younger boy passed out on a sofa, wrist computer still active.

"Robin," he whispered, poking the smaller boy in the shoulder. "Rob, wake up, it's like eleven, you need to go to bed." Robin didn't move, so Wally reached out to pick him up. At the last second, he paused, and pulled his phone out. After taking a quick picture to use as blackmail later- because seriously, Robin looked about ten, curled up like that- he gently slid his arms under the acrobat's knees and shoulders. Before he could lift him, though, Robin twisted out of his arms.

"Wuzoingon?" he muttered, still sounding half asleep. Holding his breath, Wally reached out again, slowly lifting the smaller boy- "Ow!" Wally landed on his back two metres away, wondering how the hell Robin, being tiny, injured and asleep, could possibly judo throw him without waking up. Grumbling, he checked that Robin was okay, and threw a blanket over him.

* * *

><p>"Hey, Robin, we were just going to watch a movie," Artemis said the next day, pointedly ignoring Wally.<p>

"Sure," Robin replied, somehow shrugging and swinging himself into the room at the same time. Wally followed, wincing when he saw the familiar Disney logo on the screen. Ever since M'gann had discovered the cartoons, she had been obsessed with them. So far they'd watched Cinderella, Pocahontas, Hercules, and The Little Mermaid ("Very amusing, Robin, but I am _not_ a mermaid, I am an Atlantean, and no, the seaweed is not greener in somebody else's lake, Wally. We do not actually have lakes underwater.") Last time it had been Mulan. The ninja bits had been cool, and there wasn't so much love stuff, so he'd found it pretty good, even if Robin had teased him about finding 'a girl worth fighting for'.

This time it was the Lion King. Wally had seen it before, when he was about eight, and as the familiar music started up, he relaxed into the couch.

By the time Simba's dad was hanging over the edge of the cliff, stampede rushing below him, the group were all paying close attention.

Artemis was leaning so far forward, she was practically horizontal. M'gann had floated a foot into the air without noticing, and Kaldur was wide-eyed. Even Conner looked less bored than usual. Wally, having seen it before, was less focused, and noticed that Robin was sitting completely still, something which never happened with the constantly hyper kid.

By the time that he'd remembered that Robin was scarily good at predicting plotlines, and had probably figured it out a while ago, Mufasa had fallen to the ground. Robin had levered himself to his feet and swung himself out of the room, leaving Simba staring in shock on the screen. Halfway through the next song, when Robin still hadn't come back, Wally left to go find him.

He tracked him down surprisingly easily, leaning against a wall. His sunglasses were firmly in place, as always, covering half of his face.

"You okay?" Wally asked.

"I'm fine," Robin said evenly.

"Why'd you leave?"

Robin shrugged. "Didn't think the movie was that good."

Wally was slightly suspicious, knowing that Robin was usually a sucker for animal movies, and how can you not like the Lion King?

"Race you down the corridor?" Robin asked suddenly, prodding him with a crutch. Wally peered at him, wondering if he was joking. "Handicapped, of course," the smaller boy added with a smirk, tossing a rope to Wally. Wally shrugged and started tying his ankles together.

When he looked up, he was alone in the hallway.

"Robin?" Wally called, trying to take a step forward. He tripped and crashed to the ground. "Ow..."

"Kid Idiot, what the hell are you doing?" Artemis poked her head out of the door.

"Looking for Robin. He's run off somewhere, left me tied up."

"You got tied up by a thirteen year old on crutches?"

"No, I tied me up." Wally glared at the wall until Artemis stopped laughing and untied the rope. "Look, we need to go find him. He could be anywhere by now."

Artemis tilted her head sceptically. "He can look after himself, you know."

"Batman will have my head if something happens. Are the others still watching the movie?"

Artemis sighed. "Fine."

The team combed the mountain, checking every room. There was no sign of the missing boy.

"He's probably used one of the zeta tubes," M'gann suggested, heading towards the machine.

"No, Batman blocked him from the system," Wally said, turning to look somewhere else.

"How do you know?" Kaldur asked.

"Because he's spent the last few days trying to hack it."

"Wait..." Conner said slowly, turning towards the door. "Can anyone else hear...laughing?" They all strained their ears, but none of them heard anything. Conner followed the sound to the training room. A familiar cackle echoed through the room as they pushed the door open.

Wally still couldn't see his friend. "Robin?" he called, stepping forward. "Are you in here?" Another laugh, and then Robin swooped through the air, clinging to a rope with one hand. His face was beaded with sweat, tight with a barely masked expression of pain, but he looked like he was having the time of his life as he used the weight of his casts to swing himself through the air. The momentum sent him sailing forward, grabbing another rope and flying away again.

"Robin, get down from there!" Wally shouted. Seeming to take him literally, Robin let go of the rope. M'gann gasped, but within a few seconds, Robin had caught another trapeze and was at the other side of the hall.

"Robin, will you stop that? It cannot be helping your recovery." Kaldur's tone was firm, but entirely ignored by the acrobat. The boy laughed again, flinging himself away.

"I say we leave him. He's an expert at this stuff, remember?" Conner said gruffly, turning towards the door. The others shrugged and followed. Wally sat down on the pile of combat mats in the corner. Batman had told him to keep an eye on Robin, and he would. Robin was nearly invisible amongst the shadowy rafters, but Wally attempted to focus on him anyway.

He heard the panicked gasp before the snapping sound.

He was already moving when he remembered that Conner had tied Orbital up in the trapezes. That guy was turning out to be more trouble than he was worth, draining the strength from everything. His somewhat disorganised mind was already trying to work out how he'd explain this to Batman.

But that was knocked from his head when he heard Robin's strangled cry, and looked up to see him flailing as he fell through the air from the highest trapeze, which plummeted after him. For a split second, Wally thought that Robin would catch himself on another rope, as he'd done so many times before, but then a pair of black sunglasses hit the ground in front of him, and he saw wide, panicked blue eyes, and he realised that this was definitely not a new trick. Desperately, he reached out, and then his knees buckled as Robin flopped into his arms; seriously, the casts must had doubled his weight. The trapeze fell on his head a second later, knocking him off balance. He landed awkwardly on the floor, heavily enough for the words _'Kid Flash...inconclusive'_, to appear next to his head. Wally would have been pleased at finally confusing the system if he wasn't so worried about Robin.

The younger boy was trembling, and his eyes were fixed on a point next to Wally's shoulder. His lip quivered for a second, and then he twisted in Wally's arms, burying his face in his chest. The older boy could feel the sobs shaking the skinny frame as he gathered him up, carrying him out of the room and down the corridor.

"What happened?" Kaldur demanded, taking in the situation with a single look.

"He fell, the trapeze snapped," Wally replied, trying to keep moving forward without showing Robin's uncovered eyes.

"The trapeze snapped, and he fell?" M'gann asked nervously, flinching at the shuddering groan Robin gave at her words.

"Orbital." Artemis growled, eyes flicking to Conner for a split second. "That son of a..."

"Is he hurt?" Kaldur asked, practical as ever.

Wally shook his head. "No, I caught him, but something's wrong."

"I could try and read his mind," M'gann suggested quietly. She ducked her head at the looks she got from the rest of the team. "It's just...he's sort of loud. If I tried, we would know what's wrong. Maybe we could help?" she said, wincing slightly at the flood of pain from the boy's mind. It was that sensation again, the one behind the wall in his mind.

_...falling..._

"It wouldn't be right while he cannot give his consent," Aqualad said firmly. "I think the best we can do is wait until he calms down somewhat, and then we can try and figure out what's going on."

"You won't just leave him, though?" M'gann asked pleadingly.

"Of course not. He's like a little brother to me. To all of us, right?" Wally said reassuringly, tightening his grip.

"Family." Conner's voice was gruff, but it got the point across.

Something suddenly clicked in Wally's brain, and he would have hit himself in the head if he didn't have a distressed boy in his arms. "Hello, Wally!" he whispered bitterly. "I should have realised..."

"Do you know what's wrong?" Artemis said, moving closer.

"Yes, it's just...oh, no."

"What is it?" Kaldur asked, frowning at the look on Wally's face.

"It's to do with his identity, guys. I'll try and calm him down."

He ran off without another word, but came back a few seconds later, without Robin. "Someone call Batman."

Wally closed the door of his room and sat next to Robin. "Rob, you can open your eyes now. It's just me."

For a moment it seemed as if he hadn't heard him, and then, "Wally?" Blue eyes blinked open, swimming with tears.

"Hey, Dick."

Because this was nothing to do with Robin, really.

Dick took a shuddering breath in. "Wally, I can see them..."

"I know, Dick." Wally shifted closer, pulling the boy who might as well be his little brother into his arms. Dick slumped miserably, breath rushing out of him in a whoosh.

Wally was suddenly jarringly reminded of the night a few months after he'd become Kid Flash, when he turned up at the manor to hang out with the younger boy, and halfway through the evening, Dick had just... stopped.

_"Dick? Dick, what are you doing?" The smaller boy didn't move. Wally ran back to his side. "Dickie," he tried, expecting the irritating nickname to get some reaction out of the eleven-year-old. "Seriously, man, what are you doing?"_

_"I forgot..." Dick whispered. Without warning, his legs gave way and Wally had to catch him before he faceplanted._

_"Dude? What's up?"_

_Dick shook his head, shrugging off Wally's arms and shakily walking to his room. Wally was so surprised he didn't follow for several seconds. When he did, he found Robin pacing the room, a shellshocked look on his face. "Oh my god, I forgot," he muttered._

_"Forgot what?" Wally asked, taking his friend's arm and sitting him down on the bed. "Is it Bruce's birthday or something?" Dick turned his face away, but Wally had seen the tear sliding down his face. "Dick? Are you...crying?" Dick's shoulders shook, and Wally knelt down in front of him. "Hey, hey," he said, taking Dick's face in his hands when he tried to twist away. "Hey," he said again, more gently. "Tell me what's wrong, Dick."_

_And it all came spilling out, as Dick fiddled with his phone. How Dick, aged nine, had watched his parents and the rest of his family fall to their deaths. How he had tripped scrambling down the steps and sprained his ankle, how their bodies had looked so wrong, so broken. How two of the clowns had run out to take him away, and how strange it was to see a crying clown. And how all that had happened exactly two years ago today._

_Wally listened, and held his friend as he slowly broke down. By the time Bruce Wayne burst through the door, tie squint, phone in hand, Dick was choking on his own sobs, and Wally was starting to panic. Then Bruce gently nudged Wally away, and lifted Dick into his lap._

_"I got your text," he murmured softly to the boy. Dick mumbled something indistinct, and Bruce smiled. "Don't be. You know I hate dinners with the Rosens."_

_Wally had stood at the end of the bed quietly, waved away Dick's apologies, but made sure to memorise the date._

* * *

><p>Dick twisted in Wally's arms, hiding his face in the fabric of his hoodie, and Wally realised, with a sinking feeling, that it was that day again today. "Oh, man," he muttered, smoothing the black hair from Dick's forehead. "This has not been a good week, has it?"<p>

Dick's response was a sort of mewling whimper. "Hurts..."

Wally wasn't sure if he meant physically or mentally. All that swinging around and then falling fifteen, maybe twenty metres can't have been good for him. Add that to the general trauma associated with falling, the whole Lion King thing, and the date, and Wally was amazed that Dick hadn't broken down earlier.

"Wally, they're... they're..."

Wally had seen Dick as vulnerable this just a handful of times before. The first time was when he was eleven, exactly two years ago. The second time was when the team had accidentally been exposed to some sort of gas- Robin called it Fear Gas, shouting to everyone to get their gas masks on.

_"It's Scarecrow's weapon, I don't know how this gang got hold of it!" Robin yelled, balancing precariously on a roof beam as they watched the cloud rise up towards them. "Fear Gas! Masks on, now!" He pulled out his own and the team followed suit, Kaldur only pausing to command M'gann to link them up. Almost instantly, Wally cursed._

_"What is it?"_

_"I dropped my mask!"_

_Robin glanced behind him, and tugged off his own mask, throwing it back along the beam. "Take mine."_

_"Robin-"_

_"I've been exposed to the gas before. It might not affect me so badly."_

_"We need to get out of here!" Artemis thought. The explosion which had released the gas had weakened the building, and the roof beams wouldn't hold much longer. Once again, their mission had turned from 'covert' to 'very noticeable'. Robin would probably have a word for it if he wasn't fighting to keep his balance while his nightmares played before his eyes. M'gann ended up levitating him out because he looked ready to pass out, and his thoughts were practically screaming inside his head._

_Somehow, they all got out before it caved in. Robin immediately collapsed to his knees and threw up. His breathing was ragged, and he was shaking. Wally ran to his side."Robin!" The younger boy didn't seem to hear him, instead letting out a strangled scream, twitching away from them._

_"We need to get him to the bioship," Kaldur commanded. M'gann nodded. When the ship arrived, Conner carried the shivering boy inside, laying him down on the floor while he muttered in a language none of them knew._

_"Does anyone know what this Fear Gas is?"_

_"Robin, can you hear us?"_

_"Aqualad to Mount Justice, we are returning, Robin has been affected by a mystery gas.."_

_Wally knew that Robin kept antidotes in his belt, but he had no idea where they were. All the team could do was hold him down so he wasn't thrown around in the ship. By the time they reached the mountain, the gas was wearing off, and Robin could stagger down the ramp leaning on Wally's arm, still shaky, breath coming in wheezing gasps. Batman took one look at him, curtly demanded what had happened, and debriefed then all immediately, vanishing in a whirl of black. As soon as he'd gone, Robin slumped to the ground, pulling his knees up to his chest, making himself into a small ball wrapped in a dusty cape. He looked...defeated. Batman came back and offered him a small pill, probably the antidote, and Robin shook his head, coughing weakly. Batman pressed the medicine into his hand, and they all pretended that they didn't see the tears running down the teenager's face._

* * *

><p>When that had happened, none of them had actually known what Fear Gas was, seeing as they weren't from Gotham. Wally had felt guilty ever since he'd looked it up.<p>

"Dick, are you okay?" he murmured. "Do you want some painkillers?" Dick paused, and then, looking so small, he nodded. "Okay. Will you be alright while I go find them?"

Dick tugged at his sleeve, big blue eyes looking lost. "Should I tell the others? About..."

"You don't have to, they'll understand," Wally said in his best big-brother voice. Dick nodded, but didn't let go of his sleeve. "Dick, you need to let go. Then I'll get your medicine."

Dick shook his head. "Can you just...stay, please?" Tears were smudged on his cheeks, and Wally felt an ache in the pit of his stomach.

"Of course, Dick. I'm not going to leave you."

That seemed to have been the wrong thing to say. Dick collapsed, going completely limp, and would have slid off the bed if Wally hadn't caught him. The smaller boy was crying again, deep, painful sobs which tore from his chest and left him gasping for air, and Wally knew he was never letting Dick out of his sight on this day ever again.

"What happened?" Wally had never been more relieved to hear Batman's flat tone. The Dark Knight swept into the room in a swirl of black cape, pulling Dick close to him. Wally stammered out an explanation, making sure to mention Orbital draining the strength of the ropes. When he got to the part about the date, he was pretty sure Batman swore, but he carried on. Dick had stopped crying, but his face was still twisted with pain and misery.

"Back in a minute," Wally said, and ran off to gather the various painkillers. Batman thanked him, emotionless as ever, and sent him to reassure the team that Robin was going to be okay.

They were in the room with the broken glass door, which still hadn't been fixed, talking amongst themselves quietly. Nobody seemed to be having a specific conversation with anyone else, judging by the varied topics.

"We should go and kill Orbital, how should we do it?"

"I wonder how Robin is, Batman's here, right?"

"How was I supposed to know that he could break the ropes?"

"We need to wait for an update from Batman or Wally."

Wally joined in, a slight smile on his face. "Batman's got him now. I think he'll be okay." Everyone jumped, even Conner, who must have been too absorbed in his brooding to hear him arrive.

"But what was wrong?" Kaldur asked, looking Wally straight in the eye.

"It's...complicated. And private. If he wants to tell you, he will."

Kaldur nodded.

"So...should we finish the movie?" M'gann asked, pointing at the screen. Wally winced, remembering how still Robin had been, as if he was frozen.

"I'm going to go do...homework..." he said lamely, and left.

When he got to his room, which was empty of both Gothamites, he punched the wall, cursed under his breath and sat on his bed, wondering why the hell all the crappy stuff was happening to Robin this week.

It really wasn't fair.

_"Hit me with your best shot, why don't you hit me with your best shot. Hit me with your best shot, fire away,"_

Wally grabbed his phone from his desk and hit answer without looking at who it was. Robin often hacked into their phones and set 'more fitting' ringtones to various contacts. Wally had gotten into so much trouble when he lost his phone, and Artemis called it to help him find it, and they heard the cheerful chimes of 'Ding Dong the Witch is Dead'. "Hey, Roy."

_"For god's sake, Wally, why didn't you tell me he got hurt!"_

Wally winced as he heard the worry in Red Arrow's voice through the layer of anger. "I'm really sorry, I've been really busy."

_"Doing what?"_

"Taking care of Robin. Batman's left me in charge of making sure he doesn't do anything stupid."

Roy snorted. _"Good luck with that. What exactly happened?"_

"Uh..."

_"Is it bad?"_ The initial anger had almost left Roy's voice, and Wally could clearly hear the worry coming through.

"Uh... He's mostly doing fine now?"

_"Wally, seriously, just tell me."_

Roy sounded close to panic now, and Wally wasn't surprised. The archer had been insanely protective of Robin ever since he first met him. To be fair, those were pretty bad circumstances.

* * *

><p><em>"Roy! Roy, open the freaking door!" Wally hammered on Green Arrow's apartment door at superspeed, leaving a small dent in the wood. "Roy, seriously, I'm not kidding here!"<em>

_After what seemed like years to the speedster, the door opened. "What the hell is wrong with-" The words were whipped from Roy's mouth as Wally zipped past him into the hall. "Wally? What's going on?" Roy asked, looking from the dented door to the...was that blood on the corridor outside? A groan came from his living room, but not from Wally; Roy knew his voice. This one sounded younger. Did Wally have a kid with him?_

_Walking into the room, Roy stopped short at the door, because Robin, as in Batman and Robin, as in the first sidekick, as in Gotham's Robin, was lying on Green Arrow's couch, writhing as Wally knelt beside him, desperately trying to cover a bloody stain over his stomach._

_"Wally, what happened? Do you know Robin? What were you doing in Gotham? Why are you here?" As he asked questions, he grabbed a first aid kit and knelt next to the speedster, pulling out disinfectant and bandages._

_"I was hanging out with him, and he hacked into the zeta beam and decided to take us out here, and we went out, and there was this gang that were beating up this kid, and we stopped them and they stabbed him, and he won't stop bleeding, he got pushed off a bridge onto a road and he won't wake up, Roy!" Wally looked up at the older boy, green eyes wide and worried._

_Roy gently nudged his hands away from the wound. The cut wasn't long or particularly deep, luckily, but it looked painful. "Go and clean your hands, okay?" The speedster was back within a minute, and Roy had tugged off the boy's top and was busy cleaning the wound. "So you tried to interfere with a fight, you being the fourteen year old big mouthed speedster, and Robin being...what, ten?"_

_"He's eleven, almost twelve," Wally replied, for once ignoring the insult._

_"What! Okay, so then the gang turned on you, and stabbed the eleven year old," Wally nodded, tugging a bloodstained penknife from where it was caught in Robin's cape._

_"Souvenir," he said casually._

_Roy rolled his eyes and started to wrap Robin's stomach in bandages. "And they pushed him off a bridge?"_

_"They were having a fight on the bridge, and when they took the knife out he fell backwards and you can see, he's really skinny. He actually slipped through the bars, because he was all stabbed and hurt, and I didn't catch him, I had to run down into the traffic to get him. The other guys were gone."_

_"And you didn't go back to the zeta beam?"_

_Wally looked sheepish. "I kinda forgot where it was. Rob usually has blueprints and stuff on his wrist computer thing."_

_Roy finished bandaging the stab wound and started patting down Robin's sides and limbs. He had been Speedy for less than a year, but his medical training had been pretty high priority."He hasn't broken any bones, just bruises," he said, and was about to check Robin's head when the smaller boy jerked upright, gasped in pain, muttered something in a weird language Roy had never heard before, and lay down again, shivering slightly. Roy jumped backwards in shock, covering the movement by getting up to get painkillers, while Wally leant over him eagerly._

_"Rob! You're awake!"_

_"Well...done...Kid Obvious," Robin gasped, gritting his teeth. "What happened? Where am I?"_

_"Uh, you kinda got stabbed, and fell off a bridge, so I brought you to Speedy's place. He fixed you up," Wally replied. Roy walked back in, carrying a glass of water and a pack of painkillers._

_"Here," he said curtly._

_Wally grabbed the painkillers and started to read the back. "Hey, look! These are kid's painkillers, right?" Roy nodded, while Robin coughed indignantly and tried not to look to desperate. "Well, why does it say 'Seek medical advice before taking if you are elderly, blah blah blah?"_

_He handed a couple of the pills to Robin, lifted him to sit upright, and burst into hysterical laughter. Robin took a gulp of water with the medicine, and checked the packet before joining in._

_"Hey, KF," he muttered in between gasps of pain, nodding towards Roy. "You know how people get confused? He doesn't look too fused right now."_

_Both boys went back to hysterics, and Roy shook his head in disbelief. "Batman and the Flash actually let you out unsupervised?"_

_They exchanged guilty looks._

_"Ah."_

_"Well..."_

_"KF's supposed to be babysitting me-"_

_"I am _not_ explaining to Batman how you got stabbed and fell off a bridge-"_

_"Thanks for the help, Roy."_

_"Yeah, thanks, dude. We'll pay you back. Rob, where's the zeta beam?"_

_"That way."_

_By this point, they were up and out of the door, and Roy was left standing in the hall wondering why an eleven year old was fighting crime in Gotham, what they were doing in his city in the first place, who in their right minds would let Wally babysit, how Robin knew his identity, and finally, how would he get all the blood off the couch before Ollie got home?_

* * *

><p>Wally finished explaining, right up to Batman kicking him out of his own room and him telling the team what had happened. "And then my phone rang, and now I'm talking to you."<p>

_"The mountain caved in on him, and then he fell off a trapeze?"_

Wally shrugged. "Pretty much," he replied, switching the phone to his other hand.

_"In that order?"_ Roy checked incredulously.

Wally nodded, despite the fact that Roy couldn't hear him. "Keep in mind it's Robin."

Roy sighed. _"Can I come visit?"_

"Yeah, sure," Wally replied, trying to keep the excitement out of his voice. He hadn't seen Roy for ages.

_"Okay, I'll come round the day after tomorrow,"_ Roy said._ "Tell him I called, would you?"_

"Hey, who told you he was hurt?" Wally asked suddenly.

_"Ollie. He said Artemis was pretty shaken about it,"_ Roy said. Wally could practically hear him rolling his eyes at the names, but he didn't comment on it. _"Hey, I need to go, okay?"_

"Hero business?"

_"Yeah. See you, then."_

Wally nodded, even though he knew Roy couldn't see him. The low buzz of a disconnected line hissed in his ear, and he let the phone fall to his desk. "Nice to hear from you, Roy," he said to the empty room.


	3. Running Into Walls

_If you recognise it, it's not mine._

* * *

><p>Nobody saw Robin until around lunchtime the next day, when the computerised voice announced his and Batman's arrival. Robin swung himself into the room and sat down next to Conner, who was playing Mario Kart again (he seemed to have gotten obsessed with it) and picked up a controller.<p>

"Robin, are you recovered?" Kaldur asked formally, putting his book down to join the pair on the couch.

"Yeah, I'm fine. You?"

Wally skidded into the room- after a bit of discussion, they'd decided not to get the door replaced judging by the amount of rushed entries they seemed to make- and perched on the arm of the chair Artemis was sitting in. She pushed him onto the floor without looking up. "Rob! How are you? Are you okay? Where did you go?" He paused for breath and looked at the screen. "Wait, are you playing as Princess Peach?"

Robin shrugged, while Superboy looked up from the game momentarily. "M'gann was playing with me earlier," he said, before neatly sliding round a corner. "I think she's gone to try and make that cake again."

"The blue one?" Artemis asked, joining the discussion.

"Yeah, I think so. She's sitting beside the oven to make sure it doesn't burn," Conner replied, not taking his eyes off the screen as he attempted to ram Robin off the screen. Robin glanced up, without falling, and shot them a questioning look.

"Blue cake?" He twisted sideways and shot down a hidden alleyway, leaving Conner's car spinning at the edge of the road.

"Yeah, some Martian recipe," Artemis said. "She made it while you were KO'd, but it burnt and turned blue."

"It's really interesting, the batter actually changes colour like pH paper as it cooks. It's supposed to be green," Wally said enthusiastically.

Robin nodded towards the door. "Batman wants to talk to you," he said. Wally turned round, and saw the dark cape swishing around the corner. Gulping nervously, he stood up and followed him.

Batman got straight to the point. "I will be off planet for the next week or so," he said in a low voice. "I request that you take care of Robin during this time. Do not let him take part in missions or combat training, and definitely do not allow him on the gymnastics equipment." Wally opened his mouth to say that that would be close to impossible, but Batman kept talking. "Martian Manhunter has a series of mental exercises planned for the next couple of days, and Robin may join in with these."

"Okay," Wally said, relieved that he wasn't being shouted at. "Anything else?"

"If there's a severe problem, contact me, but only if you can't deal with it yourself. The job will probably require all of Superman, Green Lantern and my own powers." Wally nodded. That probably meant 'I'm trusting you with Dick, don't screw it up' in Batspeak. When he looked up again, Batman was gone.

"Wally, M'gann made cake!"

Robin's cackle followed the statement, and Wally took off down the corridor to the kitchen. On the work surface was a neon green cake. Wally reached out to take a slice, and M'gann slapped his hand. "I still need to ice it," she said firmly, levitating a bowl of swirly multicoloured icing over to the tray.

"How did you do that? Is it a Martian recipe too?" Wally asked in wonder, watching as she spread the colours, being careful not to mix them too much.

"No, it's food colouring," M'gann replied, frowning at him.

Wally shrugged, and held out a plate hopefully. "Pleeeeeease?" he tried, attempting to mimic Robin's puppy dog eyes. M'gann smiled sweetly, and cut a large slice, placing it on a plate and handing it over Wally's shoulder, to...

"Robin?" Wally turned round to see the younger boy perched on the table (how he'd gotten up there, Wally had no idea), crutches lying beside him, taking a tentative bite out of the green cake.

"How come he gets it first?" Wally whined, turning back to M'gann while Robin complimented her on the cake.

"He's the youngest, and he's injured," M'gann said firmly, handing more cake out to the others.

"No fair," Wally muttered, but he brightened when she held out the last plate of cake and pushed the not-quite-empty batter and icing bowls towards him. He took a bite of the cake. "Oh my god," he exclaimed, spraying crumbs everywhere. "Marry me, this is incredible."

Robin cackled, M'gann blushed, Artemis rolled her eyes, and Wally swore he heard Kaldur murmur "He is just joking, Conner."

The cake was very good, though.

By the time J'onn turned up, Artemis and Robin still hadn't gotten bored of teasing Wally about his 'proposal'.

Conner had driven off the edge of the Rainbow Road three times in the last minute, and Kaldur had had to stop him from chucking the controller at the pair the third time Robin dropped his crutches, falling into Artemis's arms with a melodramatic cry of "Marry me, M'gann!"

Said Martian had camouflaged herself out of embarrassment and was organising the DVDs on the other side of the room.

Wally was trying to think of ways to keep Robin out of trouble. While he didn't seem to be in pain just now, the speedster knew from experience that by the time Robin would show pain, he would be minutes off collapsing. He also knew that if Robin got bored or something bothered him, like the film yesterday, he would run off somewhere to do god knows what.

So he had to keep the hyperactive ninja occupied, happy and in sight for a week. How hard could that be?

When J'onn arrived, just as Robin and Artemis were reenacting the scene for the fifteenth time (by now the routine was much more elaborate), he telepathically caught Robin as he fell, simultaneously glancing at the floating DVD cases in the corner where M'gann was.

"Something you forgot to mention, M'gann?" he asked, setting the squirming Robin down next to Wally on the couch. M'gann flicked visible again, blushing crimson, and tried to stammer out an explanation.

"Batman has asked me to take over your training this week," J'onn said. "If you would meet me in the training hall in fifteen minutes we will begin."

He turned away, heading towards the training room. The others followed, presumably to get changed. Robin slumped in his seat.

"Have fun, guys," he said miserably, half-heartedly picking up the video game controller.

"You can come too!" Wally said enthusiastically. "Batman said, it's mental training, so you can do it as well."

"Cool," Robin said, perking up somewhat. Wally stood up and started to follow the others. "Wally, a little help here?" Wally turned to see Robin gesturing to his crutches, which were lying on the other side of the room.

Wally smirked. "Nah, you can walk," he said, turning away again, planning to return in a minute. He hardly ever got to prank Robin.

Two seconds later, a gasp of pain and a thud sent him rushing to Robin's side. "You idiot, what the _hell_ did you think you were doing?"

"You told me to walk," Robin retorted, hands gripping the cast on his right leg. Stupid stubborn Bat.

"I was going to come back!" Wally shouted, exasperated at the smaller boy. Rummaging in his pocket, he pulled out a small tub. "Here."

Robin held out his hand doubtfully. "You carry around my medicine?"

"You wouldn't take it otherwise. Look, I've got headache, nausea, sedative-"

"Sedative?"

"-throat, and general painkillers. And that's a wrapped fudge, you can have that too if you take the medicines."

Robin glared at him. "I'm not five years old, Wally." He snatched the tub out of the speedster's hand, sliding it into his hoodie pocket.

"Just as well, otherwise I'd be, like, seven, and that would be a nightmare for the rest of the team," the speedster quipped cheerfully, grabbing Robin's crutches and picking the younger boy up. They arrived in the training room several minutes before everyone else, and Robin stared at the roof space miserably, noting the absence of ropes, bars and trapezes.

"Wally, why are you not wearing your uniform?" Kaldur asked, walking in.

"Because he decided to fall over," Wally said, pointing at Robin.

Kaldur shrugged, and sat down next to him. "I will watch him, if you wish to change," he said calmly.

"He is sitting right here, you know!" Robin called from his position on the floor.

In the time it took Wally to change, the rest of the team arrived, including J'onn. Wally skidded into the room and nearly crashed into Conner, who pulled him upright by the collar.

"Now that we are all here, we can begin," J'onn said, stepping forward. "This week we will be working on mental skills, starting with blocking your mind from an intruder. We will then go on to forcing an intruder out-"

"Won't Miss M have a completely unfair advantage, then?" Wally interrupted.

"Not at all. Miss Martian will be working with me to expand her skills as a mind reader," J'onn replied calmly.

"But I'm not allowed to read their minds," M'gann said in a small voice, glancing quickly towards Conner, who looked less than thrilled.

J'onn sighed. "For the duration of these exercises, you may read everybody's minds. Is that alright with everyone?" He glanced around the room, and suddenly spoke in their minds, making everyone jump.

_"In a real fight against a mind manipulator or reader, you will not have a choice of whether they can enter your mind or not. It is best..."_

"...that you learn to defend yourselves," he finished out loud. "Now, line up. M'gann and I will start at each end, and will attempt to enter your minds. If you can keep us out for, say, one minute, we will move on to the next person."

The group of heroes lined up against the wall, with Robin in the middle. Wally stood to his right, with Kaldur beside him, and Artemis and Conner took the other side. J'onn moved to stand in front of Conner, and M'gann mimicked his stance in front of Kaldur.

"Begin."

The Martians' eyes glowed white...

...and Conner immediately reached out and punched J'onn in the face. The Martian stumbled backwards in surprise. "Superboy, that was effective in breaking the connection, but that route would probably prompt a retaliation attack. Also, it is possible that they could predict your actions, rendering it useless. Try again, and this time, use a mental, rather than physical defence."

At the other end of the line, Kaldur was faring better. His eyes were glowing a neon blue as M'gann concentrated. Suddenly, she jerked back with a cry of pain, breaking the connection.

"I am sorry, M'gann," Kaldur said. "I did not mean to hurt you."

"What was he doing?" Robin asked curiously, glancing between the two.

"I was projecting a band of electricity in front of my brain," Kaldur said. As M'gann blinked a couple of times, looking disorientated, he smiled wanly. "I doubt I could have kept it up much longer anyway. It was giving me a headache." Taking a sip of water, he offered the bottle to M'gann.

J'onn had moved on to Artemis by now, and the girl seemed to be having very little success.

"How do I do it, then?"

"The theory you are employing is working, except in attempting to concentrate on only thinking of one thing, you are inadvertently thinking of everything you are trying to cover up."

Artemis crossed her arms over her chest as if to cover herself up. "So what do I do then?"

J'onn looked between her and Conner. He seemed to have gotten the stubborn pair, while M'gann had the two who were able to use their powers. Judging by the dizzy look on the younger Martian's face, Wally had thought at superspeed- knowing Wally, none of it made sense anyway.

Really, blocking your mind was about imagination. Artemis was on the right track, but she tended to concentrate too much on the things she was trying to hide.

"Is it my turn now, then?" Robin asked, levering himself up from the floor with his crutches. He slipped, and Wally caught his elbow. Robin shrugged off the touch, leaning against the wall and propping himself up with the crutches. His feet still didn't touch the floor, and Wally remembered the pained gasp he'd heard when the acrobat had tried to walk on the casts.

"Are you ready?" M'gann asked nervously. Robin smirked, and nodded confidently.

M'gann's eyes began to glow.

The training room was competely silent. They had all heard the rumours of how J'onn had never been able to get in Batman's head, and they were curious to see how his protege would do.

A minute passed. M'gann was concentrating on Robin's mind so hard, her hair was turning black as her outfit flickered between her own and Robin's. After two minutes, J'onn stepped forward and joined his niece.

Robin barely twitched.

The rest of the team were staring, wishing that they could see what was happening, amazed at just how good their youngest member was at this.

Then Wally noticed Robin's arms beginning to shake. Just a little, hardly noticeable, but there. Robin held out for almost five minutes before he tilted his head towards Wally. It was a minuscule movement, but with speedster reflexes, Wally darted sideways and caught his friend as his grip slackened abruptly on the crutches. The sudden weight threw them both off balance, and for the second time in as many days, Wally hit the ground hard enough to light up the floor. This time he didn't bother to read it, instead carrying the smaller boy to the pile of mats by the side.

As Robin looked up, the rest of the team burst into applause.

"Well done, Robin," J'onn said, leading the others over.

"How the hell did you do that?" Artemis asked sharply.

"That was remarkable," Kaldur agreed. Conner grunted.

"What _was_ that?" M'gann asked curiously, frowning as she flew closer.

Robin didn't answer for a couple of seconds, and he looked away as if trying to catch his breath. "Later," was all he eventually said, before turning to Wally, a pleading look behind his sunglasses.

"Are you tired, Robin?" Kaldur asked, perhaps noting the slump in his teammate's shoulders, or the slight wheeze to his breath.

Or he might have been picking up on the fact that Robin essentially collapsed mid-exercise.

Robin hesitated before nodding.

"Kid Flash, can you take him to his room?" J'onn said, knowing Robin probably didn't need any feedback. He knew the boy well, as Batman had asked him to try and help with some of the trauma associated with the death of his parents, and then some of his mental training. Wally nodded, scooping up his friend again and speeding away.

When he got to Robin's room, which was rarely used, he realised he didn't know the combination for the lock.

"Two-three-ten," Robin murmured, sounding half asleep. Wally keyed it in quickly, and laid Robin down on the bed. As soon as the door clicked shut, all traces of peace or health completely vanished from the boy's face. He crumpled down to the pillow, paling dramatically. His breath hitched, and his hands shook slightly. Wally rushed to his side urgently, slightly overwhelmed by the amount of medication on the bedside table.

"Rob? Which one do I use?" Robin leaned back against the pillows, looking exhausted. "Robin, what's wrong?"

"Nothing. I'm just...tired?" Robin said slowly, as if he wasn't really sure.

"What hurts?" Robin didn't answer, but Wally saw the way his hands clenched into fists, the tight, pained look on his pale face. "Everything, then?" he said, reaching for the pack of painkillers. After pausing for a second, he picked up one of the sedatives as well. "Next time, would you just take your medicine when I tell you to?" he asked, exasperated.

Robin nodded numbly, swallowing the pills without even looking at them. Wally pushed a glass of water at him, but his hands were shaking so badly he could barely hold it.

"I hate mind-reading," he mumbled, head nodding against his chest. "When I was becoming Robin, training, Br-Batman used to get Martian Manhunter to test me. He tried to be gentle, but every time, I just saw them..." His voice trailed off, and not for the first time, Wally wondered about just how harsh Batman's training could be. Seriously, forcing a nine year old boy to relive his parent's deaths again and again, until he could block out mind readers for five minutes or more? Wally stayed until he was sure the boy was asleep, and then sped through the corridors back to the training room.

The team, plus J'onn, looked up as he rushed in. "Is Robin okay?" was the first thing he heard.

"He was just tired," Wally replied, sitting next to M'gann and trying to wrap an arm around her shoulders.

She promptly shifted her shape and ducked away. "When will he be back? You forgot his crutches," she said, pointing.

"Uh..."

Artemis rolled her eyes. "What did you do?"

"I might have sedated him. Just a little bit. A few hours."

"Wally!"

"Come on, you all saw him. He was exhausted. Besides, he won't know until he wakes up."

Kaldur shrugged, quickly changing the subject back to their lesson. "So...how did we do?"

J'onn stood in front of the group, meeting their eyes individually. "Superboy, your instinctive response was to force me out of your mind. That is semi-effective, but in order to do that, I will already have entered your mind."

The clone grunted, looking like he'd like to punch the Martian in the face again.

"Artemis, as I said earlier, your method of concentrating on covering up the thoughts with other things, such as a song, was a good idea. Unfortunately, you were showing me what you tried to cover."

Artemis scowled at him. "You don't tell anybody," she muttered, not quite brave enough to threaten a member of the League.

"Aqualad, Miss Martian said that you used a stream of electricity to block your neural pathways, therefore preventing her from entering your mind. That was an intelligent effort, but it was tiring and you were unable to fight at the same time. I would also like you to consider how you would do this if you were prevented from using your powers in some way."

Kaldur nodded with his usual respect, but didn't say anything.

"Kid Flash, what exactly did you do?"

Wally shrugged. "I don't actually know. I couldn't think of anything, so Miss M could probably see everything fine."

"You were thinking at superspeed," M'gann said, looking dizzy at the memory.

Wally scratched his head awkwardly. "Uh..." he said lamely.

"How can you think that fast and still say stupid things?" Artemis snorted derisively, getting a giggle from M'gann and a slight smile from Kaldur.

"Again, try and think about what you would do with your powers blocked," J'onn said calmly.

"What did Robin do?" Conner asked abruptly, still fuming over his seemingly insufficient efforts. J'onn exchanged glances with M'gann, having a sort of mental conversation.

"It will be easier if we show you," M'gann said softly. Although nobody looked excited at the prospect of more mind stuff, they all nodded in agreement.

And then they were all standing next to a thick grey wall, the only thing they could see besides themselves.

"What is this place?" Artemis asked, her voice sounding echoey in the darkness.

"A projection of the method Robin uses to block us from his mind," J'onn said.

Wally looked around, surprised to find he could move. Somehow, he tripped over his own feet (seriously, he knew he was clumsy, but technically, he wasn't even there, how is that even possible) and fell against the wall.

_...falling..._

His mouth went dry. "Does Robin...hide behind that...thing?" he asked J'onn. The Martian nodded.

Kaldur reached out and touched it, prompting the rest of the group to do so. Before the two Martians and Wally could stop them, the sensation blasted through their heads.

_...FALLING..._

The group found themselves lying on the floor of the training room. Slowly, they picked themselves up, still trembling from the force of the expulsion.

"That is how Robin keeps people out of his mind?" Kaldur asked, looking shellshocked.

J'onn nodded. "He has been building that mental wall since he was a child. To try and force entry through a barrier like that could cause serious mental damage to both the reader and Robin."

Conner frowned. "But how do we do that?" he asked.

M'gann and J'onn exchanged that glance again. "It's made of...bad stuff. Bad memories, fear, hate," M'gann said nervously.

"So that... falling thing, that's Robin's fear?" Artemis said, looking confused. "But he's an acrobat, with trapezes and stuff. Doesn't he like all that stuff?"

Wally shuddered involuntarily, realising exactly what Robin did to keep people out of his mind. He pushed himself behind a wall, and if anyone tried to get in they got hit by a blast of fear and panic and sadness, but so did Robin. Wally couldn't understand how the younger boy could stand it.

Then he remembered something Robin had said, a few days after the fear gas incident.

_"So what exactly is that fear gas stuff?" Wally asked, sitting down next to Robin. His friend didn't even twitch, still tapping at the keyboard._

_"It's a toxin made by the Scarecrow. His plans usually involve poisoning the whole of Gotham, but Batman and I usually stop him. Basically, it makes you hallucinate, reliving your worst memories, seeing your greatest fears." He didn't look up, but Wally could see the way his shoulders tensed under his hoodie._

_"Have you been affected a lot?" he asked, more out of curiosity than anything else._

_Robin tilted his head sideways for a few seconds. "A hundred or so..."_

_"Seriously? Dude, that sucks-"_

_"...minor incidents, just a panic attack or something. Then there's about thirty, forty medium ones, counting last week. And as far as I know, I've only been seriously affected about five times."_

_"What's serious?" Wally asked, not entirely sure that he wanted to know, having seen how a 'medium' dose effectively crushed his friend._

_"Ever heard of 'dying from fear'?" Robin asked, turning round with a ghost of a smile on his face. "I've come pretty close a couple of times."_

_Wally took a step backwards, suddenly very, very paranoid about the air he was breathing. "What about Batman?" he blurted, partly to change the subject._

_"He's generally okay. His cowl has a filter. He has been hit before, though, and it's..." Robin trailed off, quickly turning back to the computer screen._

_Wally could tell that he didn't want to talk about it, but he still pushed. "Don't you need a filter or something? Seriously, dude, how do you get it that much?"_

_Robin spun round again. "I crawl around in air vents and annoy the bad guys, KF. It's not really surprising."_

_"But-"_

_Robin's gaze lifted until Wally could see the shadows of his eyes through the sunglasses. "Not all of my nightmares hurt me," he said quietly, voice sounding older and younger at the same time. He twisted round again, fingers flying across the keyboard._

They spent the rest of the afternoon practicing shielding their minds from the two Martians. By the end of it, M'gann had concentrated for so long, her shape-shifting had gone haywire. Her skin was blurring between Kaldur's dark tone, Wally's freckles and her own green, while her clothes looked like a smudged patchwork of different uniforms. Her hair had grown to her waist, but was gleaming black. Her eyes flickered from grey to blue to green and back. The effect was disconcerting, to say the least. However, they could all keep them out of their heads for over a minute, nowhere near as long as Robin, but as J'onn reassured them, most readers would have given up by then anyway.

As soon as they were dismissed, Wally sped to the punching bag in the corner and laid into it, ignoring the looks he got from the rest of the team.

"Stupid...masochistic...Dick..." he muttered, punctuating each word with half a dozen punches.

"There's a kid at my school called Richard," a voice said from behind him. Wally jumped, missing the punchbag and stumbling forward. When he regained his balance, he turned to see Artemis leaning against the wall.

"Don't do that!"

"He annoys the hell out of everyone," she continued as if he hadn't said anything. "So when they turn round and call him, you know, a dick, he just smirks at them and goes 'that's my name, don't wear it out' or something like that. Because 'Dick' is short for Richard?"

Wally was still staring at her, irritated that she'd interrupted him, and a little confused. "What?"

"You were cussing at the punchbag," she said coolly, coming to stand beside him. Wally shrugged, deciding not to tell her what he was really talking about. Artemis reached out and caught his hand as he reached out to hit the bag again. "Stop."

"Why?"

"You aren't wearing gloves. See?" The skin on his knuckles was scraped and bleeding.

Wally shrugged. "It'll heal in like, an hour anyway. It's no biggie."

Artemis sighed. "What's up?"

"Uh...a roof," Wally said. At the stop-being-an-idiot look he got, he tried again. "The opposite of down?"

"Quit being stupid, Kid Stubborn. Something's up with you and Robin."

Wally frowned, but before he could back away, Artemis grabbed his arm and dragged him over to the benches, pinning him against the wall.

"Hey!"

"Look, you know full well that Robin is like a little brother to everyone on this team. Tell me what's wrong with him so we can help."

Wally didn't say anything.

"Wally, come on. Please?" She ducked her head, but Wally had seen the tears magnifying her grey eyes. "I just want to help," she added, all semblance of bravado or toughness dissolving. Uncertainly, he sat down, tugging her with him.

He had never seen the archer act so... vulnerable. It was awkward, wrong somehow. He felt the same way he did when he tried to stand completely still, or when he saw Robin fall, as if he was watching something impossible.

"He'll be okay. He always is."

Artemis nodded. "It's just... I hate feeling so useless. I mean, I've got all this," she gestured to her uniform, frustration coming through in her tone, "and I can't even stop kids getting bullied at school. There's this kid, his name's Grayson, and he gets called names, shoved around a lot. Once he was at the top of one of the climbing ropes, and some idiot shook the rope until he fell. He barely caught the rope again." She sighed, and Wally grimaced, remembering Robin telling him about it.

Artemis stood up abruptly, striding away towards the door.

"Hey, wait," Wally said, speeding to her side. "I can't tell you all of it, 'cause it's like, identity stuff, but I can tell you some stuff to watch out for. Then you'll know when he needs help, or people to back off or something."

Artemis paused, then turned around and walked back to the benches. "Go."

So Wally told her about how Robin never showed pain or tiredness until he was about to pass out. That if he suddenly went very still and quiet, but wasn't asleep, you should check he was alright. Never try to move him while he's asleep because he will go all unconscious ninja reflexes on you.

Artemis nodded at each new bit of information, and when he finally finished, she stood up, thanked him, pointed out that he had left Robin's crutches in the corner, and left.

* * *

><p>None of the team slept well that night.<p>

Conner never slept when there were so many people in the mountain. Even though his room was at the furthest end, and they were all soundproofed, he wasn't comfortable with the idea of a lot of people around him while he slept, for some reason. Usually he just tried to block everything out, like wearing earmuffs which reduced his hearing to that of a human's.

M'gann had a sort of echo in her mind, like a ringing in her ears. _...falling..._ drifted through her thoughts whenever she tried to close her eyes.

Artemis was awake, just thinking about all the things Wally had told her. Out of everyone in the team, it was Robin she knew the least about, and yet she felt closer to him than the others. Probably something about being the only humans on the team.

Kaldur had a lingering headache from his electricity trick earlier. After several hours, he got up and headed towards the kitchen, hoping to get a glass of water. Halfway there, he tripped over a lump lying in the hallway. His tattoos activated, casting an electric blue light over the scene.

"Wally?"

The speedster was bundled up in a red sleeping bag, blinking as he struggled upright. "What? Oh, hey, Kal. I was just..." He gestured to Robin's door. Kaldur realised that there was a small camp set up outside the door. Pillows, energy bars, and empty coffee mugs littered the ground.

"What exactly are you doing?"

"Uh...keeping an eye on Rob," Wally said, as if it should be obvious.

Kaldur shook his head. "Go to bed, Wally." The light was fading as his tattoos switched off, and Wally grabbed a torch, illuminating the corridor in bright light.

"Nah, I'm comfy."

"Wally, Robin will be fine," Kaldur said firmly, at the same time marvelling at the dedication Wally showed to his friend.

Wallly shrugged. "Hey, why are you up?" he asked, wriggling out of the sleeping bag.

"I could not sleep," Kaldur said. "I was going to get a glass of water."

Immediately, a water bottle was thrust towards him, and was retracted almost as quickly. "I know! Hot chocolate!"

And before Kaldur could blink, he was being dragged down the corridor and into the kitchen. The speedster was zipping around, gathering mugs, milk, cocoa powder, and various other ingredients. Kaldur perched on a stool and watched. The scene was slightly ridiculous, the blur of red footsie pyjamas flitting around by the worktop, occasionally pausing to check something. Kaldur glanced down at himself, and admitted he didn't look much better. He was wearing loose cotton bottoms and a t-shirt Robin had given him for his birthday, bearing the words 'Sleeping with the fishes'. Kaldur still hadn't quite figured out why that was so amusing yet, but it was comfortable. Wally plunked a steaming mug of hot chocolate in front of him. Kaldur stared in confusion at the pink and white goo coating the surface, but when he saw Wally drinking his happily, he followed suit.

And choked as boiling liquid burnt his tongue.

"Wally, how can you _drink_ this?" he asked.

Wally passed a glass of cool water over before answering. "Sorry, dude, I forgot. I've got this insanely high tolerance for hot food, and you're like, all Atlantis-cold stuff. It'll cool down in a minute."

"What'll cool down?" a voice said, and the boys turned to see M'gann and Conner entering the room.

"Hot chocolate," Wally replied, getting a couple more mugs out.

M'gann smoothed down her rabbit-patterned nightdress, and sat down opposite Kaldur. "Wally, it's three in the morning."

"I know," Wally replied.

"Why are you two up?" Kaldur and Conner asked at the same time. By the time they'd explained the various reasons for their insomnia, Artemis had joined them, blonde hair loose against her black pyjamas.

"What the hell are you doing here?" she asked, glaring at them.

"Drinking hot chocolate and moaning about why we can't sleep," Wally said, offering her a mug.

"Is something wrong?" Kaldur said.

"Robin," Conner said suddenly, head turned to the door, obviously able to hear something they couldn't.

"Exactly. For god's sake, I could hear him from the other end of the hall."

Wally was already gone.

By the time the rest of the team caught up, the door to Robin's room was open, and Wally was bent over the bed, muttering under his breath. Muffled screams could be heard, mixed with sobs and more of that language none of them knew.

"Robin, dude, wake up," Wally muttered. He glanced at the rest of them, panic in his eyes. "Conner, how did you not hear him?"

"I was..." Conner trailed off as he saw Robin's face. It was stained with tears, leaking out from under the pale grey sleep mask he was wearing.

M'gann tried to wake him up mentally, but all she could say was that he was having a nightmare, and they'd all gathered that. Conner suggested shaking him, but Wally reminded him that he was injured and asleep, and would probably _still be a ninja at them._

"Robin, wake up," Kaldur said, in his best authoritive-team-leader voice. Nothing happened. Robin whimpered again, twisting against the bedsheets.

Then Artemis licked her finger and stuck it in his ear. "Aah!" Robin's head jerked forwards, and his hand shot out, catching M'gann on the shoulder. He cried out in panic, and Wally cursed, fumbling for the light switch. His hands caught the cord, and the whole thing crashed to the ground. Robin cried out again, not fully awake and disorientated.

"What is going on here?"

The team whirled round as the main light flicked on. J'onn stood in the doorway.

"Uh...Rob had a nightmare," Wally said lamely.

"We were attempting to assist him," Kaldur added.

"It's...it's okay," Robin said in a small voice. "Thanks, though."

"Are you sure?" M'gann asked worriedly.

Robin nodded. "Yeah. I'm fine. Sorry I woke you up."

The team attempted to explain their various reasons for being awake, until Conner shoved them all backwards and away.

"Go to sleep," J'onn said firmly. The group drifted in the general direction of their respective beds.

Nobody argued as Wally pulled the sleeping bag up again, rearranging the cushions so he could continue guarding Robin's door.

Before his eyes closed, he heard a quiet pattering on the pipe system he knew ran through the room, out into the corridor.

Tap-tap-taptap-tap.

_I know you're out there._

Wally bit back a smile. Only Robin would think of using Morse code within minutes of waking up from a nightmare. He tapped a reply quickly, wincing as he realised the echoes would probably be heard in Artemis's room at the other end of the corridor.

_Yeah. Are you okay?_

A pause, then...

Tap-tap-taptap.

_I will be._

Tap-taptaptap-tap.

_Roy's coming over tomorrow._

Taptap-tap-tap-tap.

_I_ _haven't seen him for ages. When_ _is_ _he coming?_

Before Wally could respond, a door opened down the hall.

"Go to _sleep_, Kid Noise Pollution!"

Tap-tap.

_Goodnight._


	4. Breaking Barriers

_If you recognise it, it's not mine._

* * *

><p>Wally woke to a heavy crashing noise and a cry of pain. He was awake and in Robin's room within two seconds.<p>

"Dude, what's up?"

"I was trying to get my crutches, and a lamp fell on my head," Robin said irritably, gesturing to the tangle of wires in his lap. "What was it doing there?"

"You don't remember?"

Robin shook his head, looking slightly worried.

"Basically, you had a nightmare, and I knocked over your light, and I guess Conner or someone put it somewhere stupid."

Robin nodded, looking like he remembered the nightmare. "Oh."

Wally passed him the crutches, not standing himself until he was certain his friend was stable. "C'mon, let's go get breakfast. I'm starving."

As he darted out of the door to clear up his 'camp', he heard Robin mutter something about how he was always starving.

By the time Robin entered the kitchen, Wally had managed to get the ingredients for pancakes out. Well, most of them.

"You forgot the eggs."

"Oh, yeah. How many?"

"Are we making them for everyone?" Robin pulled himself up to sit on the table again, casted legs dangling beneath him. Wally grabbed the eggs from the fridge.

"I guess we should make double quantities anyway," he said. Then several things happened very quickly.

Artemis walked in and whacked him on the back of the head, saying something about 'Kid Greedy' and 'coffee'.

Wally, taken by surprise, dropped the eggs. Several smashed on the ground, making a slimy mess.

Kaldur walked in and didn't notice the mess. He stepped on the egg and slipped, grabbing for the nearest thing catch his balance.

Unfortunately, the nearest thing was Conner, who had just walked in with M'gann in tow. Not fully realising what was going on, Conner reflexively shoved the Atlantean away.

Kaldur skidded across the floor, arms flailing in a spectacularly undignified manner.

Robin reached out a hand to help him regain his balance, smirking, but misjudged the older boy's momentum.

Kaldur crashed to the floor, dragging Robin with him. To add insult to injury, his left hand was lying in the splat of egg which had started the whole thing.

"Kal? Rob? Are you okay?" Wally bent over the pair, closely followed by the others.

"I am just winded," Kaldur said, accepting the hands pulling him up. "Why did you push me so hard, Conner?"

Conner shrugged, looking somewhat sheepish. "I thought you were trying to play that 'Get Down Mr President' thing on me again or something."

The team's mixed reactions to that answer were cut short by Robin's muffled gasp of pain as Wally trued to help him sit up. All heads turned to the younger boy, who was frowning as he checked the time. "This is unbelievable," he muttered. "I've been awake for less than half an hour, a lamp already fell on my head, and now this. Ow," he added, as M'gann levitated him into a chair as gently as she could.

"Are you hurt?" Kaldur asked worriedly.

"Slight loss of dignity, probably need to take my medicine. No biggie," Robin replied easily, trying to reassure the other boy. Wally sped away and came back a few seconds later with a small packet of painkillers.

"I am sorry, Robin," Kaldur said.

Robin shrugged, smile already back in place. "Who wants pancakes?"

The group soon found that they made a good team when it came to pancakes. Wally and Conner made the batter, with superspeed and strength making it easy. M'gann levitated the pancakes to flip them, and Robin had a freakishly accurate ability to tell when they were ready. Artemis was surprisingly good at folding them so the various toppings didn't drip out, and Kaldur resigned himself to making sure they didn't get too overenthusiastic and washing up.

Therefore, when J'onn turned up to tell them that training started in half an hour, he was met by stacks of pancakes, a miraculously clean kitchen, and a laughing group of teenagers.

Wally pushed three different plates towards him, grinning all over his face. "Morning! Have a pancake!"

"Those are lemon and sugar, those are cinnamon, and those have everything!" Robin added, obviously even more hyper than normal. "Is it training soon? Cool!"

He had chocolate sauce smeared on his cheek, making him look younger than ever. J'onn smiled and took a pancake.

"Sorry about this," Kaldur muttered.

By the time they reached the training hall, Robin could barely stay still. He tapped his fingers against his casts in a little repetitive pattern-_ taptaptap, taptap, taptaptaptap, tap_- and chattered incessantly. Wally was already regretting letting him have syrup, chocolate sauce, and sugar in one pancake. J'onn gestured to the row of chairs in the centre of the room, and they all sat. Wally and Artemis positioned themselves on either side of Robin again. M'gann hovered uneasily, looking at the empty chair in confusion.

"M'gann, you will also be taking part in this exercise. It is important that you learn to force another reader out of your mind, too."

M'gann nodded and sat down next to Kaldur, looking a little less nervous. J'onn stood at the front of the room as if he was a regular teacher. Wally half expected him to start giving them a lecture on World War Two or something.

"When forcing a reader out of your mind, it is important that you do so in a way that does not damage your own mentality. This will take more time and practice than shielding your mind. It has to become instinctive, so that even if your mind is being taken under control, you will automatically resist."

"How do we do that?" Artemis asked, frowning at the prospect of more mind reading.

"The most effective method I've seen has been to imagine a large object swinging towards the reader, such as a wrecking ball or a fist." He glanced at Conner for a moment. "Most readers will reflexively break the connection, and- if you do it right- those who don't will be hit by a powerful mental force."

A few seconds of silence followed his statement as the team tried to understand what he meant.

J'onn cracked a smile. "So," he said, taking a step backwards, "who's first?"

Robin volunteered immediately, still buzzing with energy. Wally winced, but J'onn stepped forward anyway.

"Are you ready?" Robin nodded several times, somehow without dislodging his glasses. Wally and Artemis exchanged wary glances over the smaller boy's head.

J'onn's eyes glowed for a couple of seconds, then he stepped backwards, flinching slightly. "Robin, are you sure?"

Robin scowled under his sunglasses. "Yes."

"This is dangerous, it could hurt you."

"Will it work?"

"Yes, but-"

"That's all I need to know."

"But even Batman-"

Robin shook his head, cutting off the Martian. J'onn sighed, but recognised the 'Bat-stubbornness' radiating off the boy. The rest of the team exchanged confused glances.

J'onn went through the rest of them as he had yesterday, receiving mixed results. Artemis and Conner seemed particularly good at it, which was unsurprising given their defensive attitudes, but M'gann simply couldn't work out how not to let people in her mind. It went against everything she'd grown up with. Kaldur picked it up with the same placidity he showed to everything. By the time it was Wally's turn, he had an idea.

"Kid Flash, are you ready?"

"Yeah, go."

As soon as Wally felt the vague itching of a reader- and after yesterday, he was hyperaware of those things- he released the mental spring. In his imagination, a large comedy boxing glove bounced forwards. In real life, he was pretty sure J'onn ducked. Robin raised a hand to high-five him.

"Nice one, dude."

Wally barely had time to wonder how Robin had figured out what he was doing before he realised that J'onn was trying to get into his head again. Another mental projectile flew through his mind.

"Very impressive, Kid Flash," J'onn conceded. He paused for a few minutes, then beckoned to M'gann. "I know we worked on non-powered mind blocking yesterday, but it is undoubtedly advantageous for you to use your powers as well, especially if your enemy is not expecting it. Therefore, those of you with superpowers are going to work with me, while Artemis and Robin will work with Miss Martian to reinforce their barriers."

The team split up, with the metas going to the other end of the room while M'gann, Artemis and Robin staying at the chairs. Robin, still hyper, had just discovered that the chair swivelled and was spinning happily in circles like a little kid. Artemis leant on the chair to halt it, and Robin stared up at her with what could only be described as puppy-dog eyes. "Robin, we need to concentrate on training," she said firmly.

M'gann hovered nervously, as if she didn't know what to do. "So... Should I try and go into your minds, then?" she asked apprehensively, glancing over to where J'onn was apparently teaching Conner how to use his super strength mentally. Wally was leaning against the wall next to Kaldur, but he caught her eye, waved, and mouthed 'Hey babe'. Rolling her eyes, M'gann turned around again to see Artemis making a rude gesture back at him.

"Me first, me first!" Robin begged, spinning round on the chair again.

"Fine," M'gann said, sighing at how immature the boy could be when he was hyper.

Immediately, she plunged into his mind. He wasn't expecting it, and she caught a split-second glimpse of a large colourful tent before that wall of emotion slammed into her, harder than ever. Whether this was because of Robin's hyperactivity or because she'd almost gotten into his mind, M'gann wasn't sure. The impact made her slip. That was probably how she noticed. The smallest crack in the wall, like the sun shining through storm clouds. She moved towards it, carefully prising it apart. She had never seen any sign of weakness in Robin's wall before, so she took this to be an invitation, or a challenge. As she widened the crack, the wall seemed to be resisting her, stiffening and twitching. Vaguely, M'gann could hear a variety of sounds. A crowd cheering, screaming, a horrible, insane laugh, more screaming, shouting, and under it all was a dagger-sharp feeling of falling.

Someone was shouting her name. _"M'gann, stop! M'gann!"_ Artemis. M'gann tried to pull back, but she was trapped in the wall, and the noises were getting louder. Images began to flicker in front of her eyes. Wally on the ground, arms outstretched to catch her as she hurtled down, falling, completely uncontrolled. She was trapped in a dark cave, and pain was shooting up her legs, and she was scared.

_Not her_, M'gann realised, shivering. _Not her._ These were Robin's memories, the ones he put into his wall. The wall she was breaking.

The pictures flew faster, and she saw teenagers, pushing and shoving, shouting. _"Circus Freak! Learn to speak English, idiot!"_

A faceless creature lurking in the shadows, twisting a knife between his long fingers. _"I'm going to catch you, little bird. I'll catch you and pluck the skin from your little birdie bones, out of the shadows, when you don't even know I'm there..."_

Then that overwhelming feeling of falling came back, and she saw a dark road, a long, long way down, tall buildings on either side. There were barely any cars moving on the road, and no lights on in the buildings. Something bright went flashing past her eyes, and she realised it was Robin's utility belt. The image swung dizzyingly, giving her a blurred glimpse of the moon and stars, and then suddenly, a pale face in a bright suit, unnaturally red lips parted in a terrifying laugh. Eyes glinted with delighted madness as he laughed. _"Let's see how well the little Robin flies without his toys."_

_...FALLING..._

M'gann thrashed desperately, trying to get out of Robin's mind. She could still hear screams, not in the memories, and it took her several seconds to realise that one of them was her. The other was Robin, sounding younger than she'd ever heard him.

_"I can't,"_ she thought in despair, trying to reach Robin, her uncle, anyone. _"I can't get out, help me, please..."_

* * *

><p>Artemis was busy arguing with Wally through rudimentary sign language and mouthed insults when she heard M'gann gasp. Turning, she saw that both of her friends were hovering several meters from the ground. M'gann's eyes were glowing neon green, and her hands were shaking. Robin's body was tense and trembling, eyes squeezed shut tightly. He reminded her of that creepy party game, the one where they lifted the person up.<em> Light as a feather, stiff as a board.<em>

Then Artemis looked more closely, and saw a single tear trickling down Robin's face, out from under his closed eyes. "M'gann, stop!" she shouted. The martian gave no sign of having heard her. "M'gann!"

Suddenly, without warning, both of them began to scream. M'gann's was one of pain and fear, while Robin was crying out in that language he seemed to revert to whenever he was hurt or frightened.

"Help!" Artemis yelled to the other group, who had looked up at the sound of the screams. Wally got there first, quickly followed by the others. He looked between M'gann and Robin, confusion and panic in his eyes.

"What happened?" J'onn asked calmly, and Artemis was ridiculously glad there was a League member there.

"I don't know, they just..." she gestured hopelessly. Abruptly, there was a shrill pleading in all of their heads.

_"I can't...I can't get out, help me, please..."_

"That was Miss M," Wally said, glancing up at the Martian.

J'onn's eyes glowed as he tried to find out what was going on. Then they returned to normal. A grim look came over his face. "Be ready to catch them."

"What are you going to do?" Conner asked, already moving to stand under M'gann.

"I'm going to forcibly break the mental connection. This is likely to knock them both unconscious, and it will temporarily cancel out M'gann's powers, including levitation."

Wally and Artemis stood under Robin, exchanging worried glances. They all felt the mental shockwave as J'onn broke the mental connection, and suddenly, Robin landed in their arms, deathly pale and completely still. Vaguely, behind them, they could catch glimpses of M'gann shaking her head frantically. For a second she was a large, white creature, then J'onn's eyes glowed again and she was left crumpled on the ground, trembling and crying. Looking quite spectacularly awkward, Conner wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

Wally pressed two fingers to Robin's neck, cold fear growing in the pit of his stomach as he felt nothing. "Robin!"

J'onn knelt beside them, touching the boy's head with light hands. "M'gann accidentally breached his mental block. He was forced to relive the memories he built it from, which, as I told you yesterday, were of pain or fear."

Artemis gave a choked sob as she triple-checked for a pulse. "No, no, no..."

Wally's head was spinning as he remembered something Robin had said to him once. "Ever heard of 'dying from fear'? I've come pretty close a couple of times."

Beside him, Artemis had started pushing on the younger boy's chest, counting under her breath between sobs. "One, two, three, f-four..."

"I'm sorry," M'gann whispered, tears still streaming down her face. "I'm so sorry."

The team knelt around the fallen boy lying on the training room floor, the one who just minutes before had been hyper and happy.

Wally felt as if his entire world was falling apart, because this couldn't happen, Robin wasn't allowed to die. He was only thirteen, he hadn't even had a proper girlfriend or anything yet. He couldn't die.

Then, a stupid, crazy idea struck him.

He placed a hand over Artemis's shaking ones, stopping her counting. "Kaldur." The Atlantean's head was bowed, but he looked up. "Shock him." Wally was surprised at how steady his own voice was. What he was suggesting could kill Robin, seeing as he was pretty sure that Kaldur's electric powers were a lot stronger than any regular defibrillator. But he's already dead, a small voice in his head reminded him.

"Wally-"

"Do it!"

Kaldur placed a hand on Robin's shoulder and muttered some kind of Atlantean blessing. Then white-blue electricity crackled down his arm and into the younger boy. Robin's body jerked violently, then fell still. Wally checked for a pulse. Still nothing. Beside him, he was pretty sure Artemis was praying under her breath. M'gann and J'onn had their eyes closed. Conner just sat there, one arm around M'gann, looking completely shellshocked.

"Again!" Wally snapped desperately. Kaldur looked like he was about to protest, but another stream of electricity flowed into Robin's convulsing body. Wally had never been religious, but now he sent a silent message to anybody, anything who might be listening. _Please, if you're there, bring him back. Please._

Kaldur sent another blast of electricity through Robin, even though Wally hadn't said anything.

_Please._

Robin's body shook violently, then went still again.

_Please._

Kaldur sat back, looking exhausted and less composed than Wally had ever seen him. Robin's body was smoking slightly, a hole singed through the fabric of his hoodie. "I'm sorry, Wally. But there's nothing we can do."

_Please. Anything._

With shaking hands, Wally checked his friend's pulse.

Nobody moved.

Then, Robin twitched. A low whimper escaped his throat, and Wally felt the unmistakeable movement of a pulse beneath his fingers.

_Thank you._

"He's alive," Wally said, voice cracking with relief. He didn't think he'd ever been so glad in his life before. Behind them, they heard the buzz of the zeta beams.

_Recognised: Speedy, B02._

Footsteps rushed across the floor, stopping abruptly as they saw the tears on their faces, realised the implication of Wally's words as he repeated them without taking his fingers from Robin's pulse.

Roy knelt on the floor, placing a hand on Robin's forehead, and glaring at Wally with a look which clearly demanded an explanation.

"I thought you said he was fine?"

* * *

><p>An angry Roy was not something you wanted to meet. Once J'onn had taken Robin to the medical bay, and the others, bar Artemis, had slipped away, looking shaken, and in M'gann's case literally shaking, the archer had lunged forward and pinned Wally to the wall, a heavily muscled forearm cutting off his air. "What the hell, West!" Wally squirmed uselessly, eyes wide in panic. "What just happened?"<p>

"He'd tell you if you'd let him go!"

Wally barely had time to register the blonde blur coming towards them before there was a sharp slap, and he fell to the ground. To give Roy credit, he didn't reach out to touch the reddening mark on his cheek, instead transferring his glare to Artemis. "What do you want, Crock?" he sneered, like a playground bully.

Artemis stood her ground, hands balled into fists, tear tracks still on her face. "One of my friends just died in front of me, _Harper,_ so start playing nice."

Wally resisted the urge to snap his fingers and say "Ooh, burn!" He really needed to work on this 'react to horrifically tense situations with jokes' thing.

The two archers glared at each other for several long seconds. The air seemed to become heavier as Roy raised a shaking fist, and Artemis gritted her teeth, clenching her own fists harder. Wally released a long breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding as Roy backed away, sliding down the wall and putting his head in his hands. The speedster sat next to him, pressing a comforting hand to his shoulder.

"Dude, it's okay, he's going to be fine," he said quietly.

"He's Robin, remember?" Artemis said, sitting beside Wally.

Roy shook his head. "I walk in, and you're all sitting there crying. I was going to ask who died, and then you said he was alive," he mumbled, voice muffled. "And I didn't think you meant him, and then I saw him...god, Wally, what happened?"

Shakily, stumbling over his words, Wally explained, Artemis chipping in every so often with a detail he'd missed. By the time they finished, they were stunned into silence, from shock and the realisation that Robin could have died, that he _did_ die.

Then Conner appeared at the door, with a look on his face which he usually only has when he's trying to get away from something, because it's too loud or confusing and he doesn't know how to react. "Martian Manhunter needs your help," he said flatly, not seeming to notice that they all had tears in their eyes.

"Why?" Wally asked, standing up slowly. He had a feeling he already knew the answer, going by the sinking feeling in his stomach, but he asked anyway.

"Robin," was all the clone needed to say, and then Wally was gone in a blur. Artemis and Roy exchanged worried glances and jogged after him.

By the time they reached the medical bay, Wally was already in the room. Peering through the glass window they could see him standing with his back to them, talking to J'onn urgently, and they could see Robin, thrashing and twisting as much as the heavy casts on his legs allowed him to. The soundproof glass prevented them from hearing the younger boy's screams, but Artemis covered her mouth with her hands to stop a sob escaping. A thin line of blood was running from Roy's mouth as he bit his lip so hard the rest of his face tightened like a spring. In the room, Wally bent over the bed, gripping Robin's shoulders to hold his head still. They could see his face now, although Robin's was still blocked, and his eyes were wide and panicked, freckles standing out on a pale face. He was shouting too, directly at the younger boy. The two archers vaguely noted that the word didn't have enough syllables, was the wrong shape on his lips to be 'Robin', but they didn't give the matter much more thought. Wally raised his hand desperately, bringing it down hard, and they saw Robin's body become still at last. The younger boy's hands shot out to grab Wally's arms, still shaking slightly, and J'onn walked over to stand beside them, talking to both boys quickly.

Wally looked ready to cry. His face was taut and brittle-looking as he ran a hand through his hair anxiously. He stared at his other hand miserably, glancing back to where the mark on Robin's face must have been. J'onn rested a hand on his shoulder, gesturing towards the door, and Wally glanced back to the bed before standing up and walking away.

Artemis and Roy caught a glimpse of J'onn reaching towards Robin before diving around the corner as quietly as possible. A second later, Wally sped past, seemingly without even noticing them.

* * *

><p>M'gann sat hunched in the corner of the lounge, rocking back and forth as she tried to control the silent sobs shaking her frame. She had turned herself invisible, although she knew it wouldn't fool her uncle or Conner.<p>

She felt horrible.

This was the second time her powers had hurt her team, the people she called friends. Except this was worse than the simulation. That was all pretend.

This time, she had killed Robin. She had seen the pallor of his skin and the the tears on her friend's faces. She had seen him moan and whimper as he was brought back, but he had still been dead, and she had still killed someone.

And even that wasn't bad enough. She had broken into the boy's worst memories, the ones he kept hidden and buried. The horrible, eerie voices, the man in the shadows, the Joker; she'd heard of the Joker, the madman who terrified Gotham. M'gann frowned, trying to work out how old Robin had been when he'd faced the villain. He couldn't have been older than ten, maybe eleven.

Bile rose in her throat as she remembered the glimpses of the worst memories, the ones Robin kept buried so deep, she had only caught blurred glimpses of a red and yellow tent, a trapeze, blood splattered across the floor, a horribly scared childlike scream, and the very first dream of falling.

With a shudder, M'gann realised that the wall she had broken into was the only thing stopping him from going insane. Her uncle was probably trying to piece it together now, to repair it enough to save the boy's mind.

She buried her face in her knees and cried.

Then strong arms wrapped themselves around her, hesitantly, then more tightly.

"I can hear you crying," Conner said, and she flickered visible again. The clone adjusted his hold accordingly, and let her cry into the S-shield on his chest until all her tears were spent.

"I killed him," M'gann whispered miserably, the words hurting her throat. "He died because of me."

"And now he's alive again," Conner said patiently.

"But..."

"Super-hearing. I could hear his heart, then I didn't hear it, and then I could hear it again. Like I can hear yours now."

She sniffed. "But I still killed him, Conner."

The clone sighed. "Did you mean to? Would you do it again?"

"Of course not, but-"

"It's going to be okay," he said firmly. He said it again, and again, until she gave in and nodded.

* * *

><p>Wally ran until he was several metres out to sea before he stopped and realised where he was. And of course, as soon as he stopped, he sank and found himself floundering in water just above his head.<p>

"Seriously?" he moaned, getting a mouthful of salty water in the process. Then something grabbed his ankle.

Wally yelped, doggy-paddling backwards, until he recognised Kaldur's dark skin and tattoos. "Wally, what are you doing?"

"Um..."

Seeing that he wasn't the best at swimming (he _could_ swim, he just preferred running over the water), the Atlantean towed Wally to a point where he could stand with his head above water before folding his arms and fixing him with a stern look. "Stop blaming yourself."

"What?"

"There was nothing you could do, just as there was nothing any of us could do to help." Kaldur's tone was calm and reasonable, but Wally could see the worry in his eyes.

"You helped," he said, dropping his gaze to the water, watching as a piece of seaweed swayed backwards and forwards next to his elbow, caught in the tiny currents swirling from Kaldur's fingertips.

"Only because you told me to," the Atlantean replied quietly, subtly admitting his own failure as leader. "What happened?"

"Nothing."

"Wally, running into the sea is not normal behaviour, even for you."

Wally closed his eyes briefly, trying to blank out the memory of his best friend's screams. "He was...screaming," he said uncertainly. "Martian Manhunter had tried to sedate him, and he just..." Robin had been thrashing and twisting, casted legs thumping against the bed. Tears of fear and pain were streaming down his face after he'd scrabbled at his face, knocking his mask loose. Even when Wally had shouted at him, _"Dick! Dick, listen to me, wake up! Dick!"_, he hadn't even paused. The speedster had been forced to slap him to shock him out of it.

"Wally, are you alright?" Wally nodded, wiping away the tears he hadn't noticed. Kaldur put a hand on his shoulder. "You're shivering," he said, giving him a gentle push towards the shore.

Before they could enter the mountain, Wally turned to face the Atlantean. "What about you? Are you okay?"

Kaldur shrugged ruefully. "Why do you think I was there in the first place?" he replied, nodding back to the ocean.

* * *

><p>Batman arrived less than two hours later, and left with Robin soon after. although they only knew it by the computer announcements.<p>

They didn't hear anything about Robin for nearly a week afterwards.

* * *

><p>Wally wore out two carpets pacing, and between Artemis, Roy (who had simply refused to leave until they got news) and Conner, not a single piece of equipment escaped impalement or damage. Kaldur distracted himself with stacks of books, anything he could find, ranging from fantasy novels to calculus to natural history. M'gann spent most of her time sitting on her own, flinching every time someone tried to speak to her. After a couple of days, Wally took charge of staging an intervention, which was a terrible idea, but none of them realised that until he had made them all creep into the room, feeling like complete idiots as they raised their hands in the air.<p>

"Get down, Mr President!"

Ignoring the Martian's squeals, the group tackle-hugged her from behind, not releasing her until Roy elbowed his way out of the tangle they'd ended up in, grumbling about 'stupid Wally' and 'stupid teamwork'.

"See, you didn't hurt us," Conner said bluntly, not noticing the way Wally and Artemis, who'd been on either side of him, were wincing and holding their ribs. M'gann giggled, and after that she didn't seem so afraid of her powers.

And then Robin came back.

* * *

><p><em>Recognised, Robin, B01.<em>

They fell over almost as soon as they got through the doorframe. It was probably Roy's fault, seeing as he kept forgetting that the lounge didn't actually have a door. Either way, they ended up in a sprawled heap in front of the zeta beam, with a familiar cackle filling the air around them.

"Asterous welcome, guys."

They untangled themselves and stood to see Robin rolling himself forwards, in a sleek black wheelchair. Batman nodded towards them before vanishing back through the zeta beams.

Immediately, they erupted in questions. Robin raised his hands to fend them off, laughing slightly. "Slow down! I'm only here for about a day. Some criminal broke out in Gotham, and Al- Agent A had to go deal with a family emergency back in England, so you guys get to babysit me. Yay?"

Everyone stared at him for a second, before Wally replied with a whoop, and they all started to head down the corridor.

"Which criminal broke out?" Artemis asked casually.

"Uh...Joker," Robin replied. Only Wally caught the grimaces which flickered across both his and M'gann's faces as he said the name.

Once they reached the lounge, sprawling out on various couches and armchairs, silence fell again.

"Hey, Miss M," Robin stage-whispered across the room. "You can look up, you know. I won't bite." The Martian glanced up nervously from her position on the edge of an armchair. Robin grinned. "Promise."

Then M'gann literally flew at him, wrapping her arms around him with so much force his chair rolled back a few paces. "I'm sorry, I'm so, so _sorry,"_ they could hear her sobbing into his neck.

"It's okay," he whispered, hugging her back. "It's okay, M'gann."

Once things had calmed down a little, Wally leaned forward in his seat. "So you're fine now? You know..." Lacking a better description, he tapped the side of his head.

Robin raised an eyebrow. "More or less, yes," he replied, mimicking Wally's actions. "J'onn managed to salvage enough of my 'barrier' to prevent serious trauma and stuff, but until I can stabilise it more, I'm kind of easily triggered, I guess."

"Right," Wally replied, mind already working out exactly what these triggers could be. His stomach gave a loud rumble, and Artemis rolled her eyes.

"You're like a freaking cuckoo clock, Baywatch."

"One that goes off at lunchtime," Robin added with a smirk.

M'gann offered to make lunch, and Artemis and Kaldur instantly offered to help (or make sure it was edible). Conner suggested green cake, and Roy made the mistake of asking what that was. Wally did offer to help, but was promptly kicked out again.

"Not a chance, Kid Chaos!"

"Seriously? Wally plus food? No way."

"No offence, Wally, but there's not a lot of space."

Slightly miffed, Wally turned away from the door only to nearly trip over Robin's wheelchair. "Dude!" he spluttered indignantly. "How the hell can you be a ninja in a _wheelchair!"_

Robin just smirked and rolled away. Wally chased after him, and grabbed the handles on the back of the wheelchair, pulling the younger boy to a stop.

"Hey," he said, turning the chair sideways and leaning against the opposite wall.

"Hey," Robin replied. He frowned quizzically. "Why are you staring at me like that?"

Wally shrugged. "Just... haven't seen you for a while."

Robin pulled a face. "I know. Batman went into total overprotective mode. I probably wouldn't even be here today if Alfred's brother hadn't gone into hospital. As it is, I'm not even allowed crutches anymore. I have to use this thing. It's like I'm grounded or something."

Wally bit back a smile. They could hear pieces of an argument, mainly between Roy and Artemis, coming from the kitchen.

"Believe it or not, I am actually capable of carrying plates by myself!"

"Not all of them at once! We're not a circus act, Harper!"

Wally heard the tiny gasp Robin gave, and he immediately knelt in front of the younger boy. "Hey, Rob, listen," he said quickly, seeing the way his friend's hands were digging in to the arms of the chair. "It's okay, it's just a memory, nothing to be afraid of."

Robin nodded shakily, exhaling in a long breath. "Just a memory. Right." He trailed off, eyes fixed on somewhere in the distance. Wally snapped his fingers in front of his face.

"Earth to Robin? Hello? I'm guessing they've got food now, should we go?"

Robin blinked a couple of times and nodded. "Sure."

Wally grabbed the handles of the wheelchair again, eyeing up the long corridor. "Ready?"

Robin twisted round. "Wally, what are you-" The rest of the sentence was left behind at the end of the corridor as Wally ran, with full super speed, pushing the wheelchair in front of him. The speedster slowed to a halt inches before the opposite wall, and turned round, walking sedately down the hall into the lounge.

"What are you two laughing about?" Roy asked, setting a large plate of sandwiches on the table.

Robin and Wally exchanged glances. "Nothing," they said together.

Roy rolled his eyes, but as he turned away, he smiled. Not that he'd ever let those two know.

He'd never hear the end of it.

* * *

><p><strong>The End.<strong>


End file.
